68 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



fighting a relentless eneniy. The veterans show 

 the intense severity of the struggle as they stand 

 resolutely in their inhospitable heights. 



Timberline trees are among the distinct attrac- 

 tions of our national parks. Timberline is prob- 

 ably the most telling in the Rocky Mountain 

 National Park, but in the Yosemite, Mount Rain- 

 ier, and Glacier National parks it has striking 

 phases. It is an illustrated and graphic story — ' 

 one of the most pov/erful in the book of Nature. 



In Colorado this mountainside tree line is two 

 vertical miles above the shore line of the sea. Like 

 the ocean's edge, timberline has miles that are 

 straight and level as a die; but in places it sweeps 

 outward around a peninsula and follows the crooked 

 line of an invading canon. There are forested bays, 

 beautiful coves, and wooded islands. Stretches of 

 forest climb high ridges, and invading outposts 

 make a successful stand in favourable spots among 

 the snowfields far above the main forest front. 



Violent, dry winds that blow ever from the same 

 quarter are a powerful, relentless foe of many a 

 forest frontier. They either point all limbs to- 

 ward the leeward or prevent all limbs except lee- 

 ward ones from growing. Trees are pushed out of 

 plumb and entire forests are pushed partly over. 

 Then overweighted with snow, they are forced 

 down to earth and flattened out. The wind and 

 snow never allow them to rise again, and they be- 

 come in effect huge vines or low, long-bodied, pre- 



