36 THE TRUCKEE AND HUMBOLDT VALLEYS. 
strangely plumose fruit and shining leaves render it very 
conspicuous. As in the case of the manzanita (Arctostaphylla 
glauca) of California, the wood is susceptible of a high polish 
‘and is used for many ornamental purposes. This tree and 
the juniper form the only respectable fuel which the country 
affords, and the traveller may consider himself especially 
blessed if he lights upon either when frantically searching 
for the wherewithal to kindle a blaze. The juniper is the 
more common tree, and is sometimes twenty or more feet in 
height. The wood is lighter colored and appears scarcely so 
compact as our eastern red cedar, which in other respects it 
closely resembles. 
The character of the vegetation is quite different on oppo- 
site sides of the same range, many plants being found on one 
side which are not at all represented on the other. As a 
rule the eastern exposure is the more fertile. Instances of 
this peculiar distribution are the little alpine potentilla 
(Ivesia Newberry’) found in chinks and crevices of high ex- 
posed granite bluffs on the western side, and a curious moss- 
like Spiraea (tomentosa) only found in somewhat similar 
locations on the eastern side. A few eastern weeds thrive 
about the houses in Unionville, and I also found Ranuncu- 
lus cymbalaria at quite an altitude in the cafions. This fact 
does not speak well for the soil, as this little plant generally 
favors the sea-shore or neighborhood of saline springs. A 
wild tobacco (Nicotiana) is common, which the Indians 
called “pah! monh!” pronounced as two interjections, and 
with much the sound of a person vigorously smoking an ob- 
durate pipe. They informed us that it was formerly much 
used by their tribe, until superseded by the superior article 
of the white men. The fleshy roots of a Phelipaea they 
told.me they employed as food in the month of October. 
The view from the West Humboldt Mountains is very ex- 
tensive and remarkable. The atmosphere is so pure in this 
region that it is possible to see a distance of sixty miles as 
readily as one could twenty at home. From this great 
