THE FIGHT AT THE TIMBER-LINE 



167 



Photograph by S. H. Willard 

 THE SKIRMISH LINE NEAR INDIO, CALIFORNIA, WHERE THE BATTLE IS WAGED 

 AGAINST DROUGHT RATHER THAN WIND AND SNOW 



No spring supplies these lonely palms of the desert with water. 



of the proud carriage and high head that 

 characterized it when on dress parade in 

 the regions behind the war zone. 



As one stands at timber-line, there 

 comes to mind that splendid eulogy of 

 those "children of the rock, gray moss, 

 dark shrub, the meager chamois flock," 

 whose natures have been tempered and 

 trained until they are able to stand "ex- 

 emplars of creation's plan that all shall 

 fight for life, and those shall live who 

 can." 



A TINY VETERAN OF 255 YEARS OF BATTLE 



The hardships endured by the tree sol- 

 diers can be appreciated only by those 

 who have observed the battle at close 

 range. John Muir tells of finding a pine 

 warrior whose trunk was only four inches 

 in diameter and whose topmost tassel 

 reached a bare three feet from the 

 ground ; yet when he counted the rings 

 that constituted its service stripes, he 

 found it to be a veteran of 255 years of 

 duty on the firing line. 



It is fascinating to study the strategy 



and tactics of the forces of King Frost 

 and to examine their methods of warfare. 

 They have long since discovered that the 

 masks the trees have adopted are effec- 

 tive against the gas of sheer coldness, the 

 most frigid known spots on the earth's 

 surface being held by trees. But if the 

 trees can stand all attacks of cold, they 

 suffer excessive casualties at the hands of 

 the winds. 



The timber-line is no shortest-distance- 

 between-two-points affair. The fortunes 

 of the battle and the terrain both tend to 

 make it as irregular and as sinuous as was 

 ever the battle line that stretched from 

 Switzerland to the sea during the World 

 War. 



The power of the trees to adapt them- 

 selves to their environment is amazing. 

 In the tropics and the temperate zones, 

 vegetation is killed by freezing, as any one 

 walking through a vegetable garden after 

 Jack Frost has made a raid on a cold au- 

 tumn night can tell from the blackened 

 leaves. But in timber-line districts it is 

 not the sudden frost that injures vegeta- 



