302 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vou. XXXIII. 
Shasta, the most beautiful, if not the highest, of the mountains 
of California. The view of the glorious snow-covered peak, 
over 14,000 feet high, is one never to be forgotten. The great 
pyramid rises from a vast plain, with nothing to break the long, 
smooth sweep of the slopes of its symmetrical cone. Seen 
from Castle Crag, the mountain is peculiarly impressive, and 
its snowy cone, framed by giant pines, is a sight, once seen, to 
be remembered for a lifetime. 
The general aspect of the country about Castle Crag is very 
different from that of the more southern valley regions. Here 
the railroad follows the narrow gorge of the upper Sacramento, 
and on each side the steep, heavily forested mountains rise, the 
only level ground being little meadows nestled between the 
bases of the hills or forming a narrow margin to the streams. 
The rains had not yet ceased, and the vegetation was in the 
full luxuriance of early summer —a sharp contrast to the dusty 
sunburned aspect of the lower valleys. 
The magnificent forest here has been carefully protected, 
and gives one a good idea of the character of the virgin forest 
of the northern mountains. The prevailing trees are the sugar 
pine (Pinus lambertiana), yellow pine (P. ponderosa), white 
fir (Adies sp.?), and Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga douglasii). 
In the low ground near the streams the yew (Taxus brevifolia) 
was not uncommon, but this does not, in this region at least, 
form a tree of any size. Along the streams, and forming an 
undergrowth in the lower forest region, are numerous deciduous 
trees and shrubs, most of them northern types, and often nearly 
related to eastern species. 
None of the deciduous trees attain a large size, but further 
north some of them, like the big-leaved maple (Acer macrophyl/- 
lum) and ash (Fraxinus oregana), become valuable timber trees. 
Alders and willows along the streams, and several oaks, the 
pretty vine-leaved maple (Acer circinnatum), and flowering dog- 
wood, are the commonest constituents of the arborescent under- 
growth. With these are mingled many fine flowering shrubs 
which add much to the beauty of the forest. The dogwood 
(Cornus nuttallii), which is said to be even more beautiful than 
the eastern species, was nearly past, but to judge from the 
