CHAPTER XXIX

HUNTING AT LAKE TAHOE

In the chapter on the Birds and Animals of the Tahoe Region I have written of the game to be found. There are few places left in the Sierras where such good deer- and bear-hunting can be found as near Tahoe. During the dense snow-falls the deer descend the western slopes, approaching nearer and nearer to the settlements of the upper foothills, and there they do fairly well until the snow begins to recede in the spring. They keep as near to the snow line as possible, and are then as tame and gentle almost as sheep. When the season opens, however, they soon flee to certain secret recesses and hidden lairs known to none but the old and experienced guides of the region. There are so many of these wooded retreats, however, and the Tahoe area is so vast, that it is seldom an expert goes out for deer (or bear) that he fails. Hence the sportsman is always assured of "something worth while."

As for bear I have told elsewhere of recent hunts on Mt. Freel from Tallac, and the two bears killed there in 1913, and of Carl Flugge's experiences. With Tallac hunters, Flugge, Bob Watson or any other experienced man, one can scarcely fail to have exciting and successful times.

CHAPTER XXX

THE FLOWERS OF THE TAHOE REGION

It would be impossible in the space of a brief chapter to present even a list of all the flowers found and recorded in the Tahoe Region. Suffice it to say that 1300 different species already have been listed. This chapter will merely call attention to the most prominent, or, on the other hand, the rarer and special flowering plants that the visitor should eagerly search for.

As fast as the snow retires from the sun-kissed slopes the flowers begin to come out. Indeed in April, were one at Tahoe, he could make a daily pilgrimage to the receding snow-line and there enjoy new revelations of dainty beauty each morning. For the flowers, as the snow-coating becomes thinner, respond to the "call of the sun", and thrust up their spears out of the softened and moistened earth, so that when the last touch of snow is gone they are often already in bud ready to burst forth into flower at the first kiss of sunshine.

In May they come trooping along in all their pristine glory, God's thoughts cast upon the mold of earth, so that even the men and women of downcast eyes and souls may know the ever-fresh, ever-present love of God.

Most interesting of all is the snow-plant (sarcodes san-guinea Torrey). The name is unfortunate. The plant doesn't look like snow, nor does it grow on or in the snow. It simply follows the snow line, as so many of the Sierran plants do, and as the snow melts and leaves the valley, one must climb to find it. It is of a rich red color, which glows in the sunlight like a living thing. It has no leaves but is supplied with over-lapping scale-like bracts of a warm flesh-tint. At the lower part of the flower these are rigid and closely adherent to the stem, but higher up they become looser and curl gracefully about among the vivid red bells. In the spring of 1914 they were wonderfully plentiful at the Tavern and all around the Lake. I literally saw hundreds of them.

Next in interest comes the heather, both red and white. In Desolation Valley, as well as around most of the Sierran lakes of the Tahoe Region, beds of heather are found that have won enthusiastic Scotchmen to declare that Tahoe heather beats that of Scotland. The red heather is the more abundant, and its rich deep green leaves and crown of glowing red makes it to be desired, but the white heather is a flower fit for the delicate corsage bouquet of a queen, or the lapel of the noblest of men. Dainty and exquisite, perfect in shape and color its tiny white bell is par-excellence the emblem of passionate purity.

Blue gentians (Gentina calycosa, Griseb) abound, their deep blue blossoms rivaling the pure blue of our Sierran skies. These often come late in the season and cheer the hearts of those who come upon them with "a glad sweet surprise". There are also white gentians found aplenty.

The water lilies of the Tahoe Region are strikingly beautiful. In many of the Sierran lakes conditions seem to exist which make them flourish and they are found in plentiful quantities.

Wild marigolds abound in large patches, even on the mountain heights, where there is plenty of moisture and sunshine, and a species of marguerite, or mountain daisy, is not uncommon. The Indian paint-brush is found everywhere and is in full bloom in deepest red in September. Wild sunflowers also abound except where the sheep have been. Then not a sign of once vast patches can be found. They are eaten clear to the ground.

The mullein attains especial dignity in this mountain region. Stately and proud it rises above the lesser though more beautiful flowers of the wild. It generally dies down in September, though an occasional flowering stalk may be seen as late as October.

Another very common but ever-welcome plant, for its pungent and pleasing odor, is the pennyroyal. It abounds throughout the whole region and its hardiness keeps it flowering until late in the fall.

Beautiful and delicate at all times wherever seen, the wild snowdrop is especially welcome in the Tahoe Region, where, amid soaring pines and firs, it timidly though faithfully blooms and cheers the eye with its rare purity.

Now and again one will find the beautiful California fuchsia (zauschneria Californica, Presl.) its delicate beauty delighting the eye and suggesting some of the rare orchids of a pale yellow tint.

The Sierra primrose (Primula Suffrutescens) is often found near to the snow-line. Its tufts of evergreen leaves seem to revel in the cold water of the melting snow and the exquisite rose-tints of the flowers are enhanced by the pure white of what snow is left to help bring them into being.

It is natural that, in a region so abounding in water, ferns of many kinds should also abound. The common brake flourishes on the eastern slopes, but I have never found the maiden hair. On the western slopes it is abundant, but rarely if ever found on the easterly exposures.

Most striking and attractive among the shrubs are the mountain ash, the mountain mahogany (cereocarpus parvifolius, Nutt.) the California laurel (umbellularia Californica, Nutt.) and the California holly, or toyon. The rich berries, the green leaves, the exquisite and dainty flowers, the delicious and stimulating odors all combine to make these most welcome in every Sierran landscape, no matter at what season they appear.

While in the foregoing notes on the flowers of the Tahoe region I have hastily gone over the ground, one particular mountain to the north of Tahoe has been so thoroughly and scientifically studied that it seems appropriate to call more particular attention to it in order that botanists may realize how rich the region is in rare treasures. For what follows I am indebted to the various writings of Professor P. Beveridge Kennedy, long time professor at the University of Nevada, but recently elected to the faculty of the University of California.

One could almost write a "Botany" of Mt. Rose alone, so interesting are the floral specimens found there. This mountain stands unique in the Lake Tahoe region in that it is an intermediate between the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada and those of the interior of the Great Basin. Its flora are undoubtedly influenced by the dry atmospheric conditions that exist on the eastern side. A mere suggestion only can be given here of the full enjoyment afforded by a careful study of what it offers.

At from 10,000 feet up the following new species have been found. Eriogonum rhodanthum, a perennial which forms dense mats on hard rocky ground. The caudex is made up of many strands twisted together like rope, its numerous branches terminated by clusters of very small, new and old leaves, with flower clusters. Another similar species is the E. rosensis.

An interesting rock-cress is found in the Arabis Depauperata, which here shows the results of its fierce struggles for existence. It bears minute purple flowers.

Flowering in the middle of August, but past flowering at the end of September the Gilia montana is found, with its numerous white and pink leaves.

Nearby is the Phlox dejecta in large quantities, resembling a desert moss, and covering the rocks with its tinted carpet.

An Indian paint-brush with a flower in an oblong cream-colored spike, with purple blotches, was named Castilleia inconspicua, possibly because it is so much less conspicuous and alluring to the eye than its well-known and striking brother of the California fields, C. parviflora. This species has been of great interest to botanists, as when first observed it was placed in the genus Orthocarpus. Professor Kennedy thinks it is undoubtedly a connecting link between the two genera. It has been found only on Mount Rose, where it is common at between 9000 and 10,000 feet elevation. It reaches, however, to the summit, though it is more sparingly found there.

Professor Kennedy also describes Hulsea Caespitosa, or Alpine dandelion, a densely pubescent plant, emitting a disagreeable odor, whose large yellow flowers surprise one when seen glowing apparently out of the masses of loose volcanic rock. It is soon found, however, that they have roots deep down in good soil beneath. Another new species, Chrysothamnus Monocephala, or Alpine rabbit-brush, is a very low, shrubby plant, with insignificant pale yellow flowers.

A beautiful little plant, well adapted to rockeries and suited for cultivation, is Polemonium Montrosense. Under good conditions it grows excellently. It was found on the summit of Mt. Rose, and at lower elevations.

Clusters of the Alpine Monkey-flower (Mimulus Implexus, Greene), are also found on Mt. Rose, as well as on other Tahoe mountain summits. The rich yellow flowers bloom profusely, though their bed is often a moraine of wet rocks over which a turbulent cold stream has recently subsided.

Slightly below the summit the little elephant's-head have been found (Elephantella attolens(Gray) Heller). Rydberg in his Flora of Montana showed that these were not properly the true pendicularis, as they had hitherto been regarded, hence the new name. The corolla strikingly resembles the head of an elephant, the beak of the galea forming the trunk, the lateral lobes of the lips the ears, and the stigma the finger-like appendage of the trunk.

In August, growing below the perpetual snow banks at about 10,000 feet elevation that supply an abundance of moisture, one will often find clumps of Rhodiola Integrifolia, which attract the eye with their deep reddish-purple flowers and fruits. The leaves also have a purple tinge.

Nearby clambering over the granite bowlders the Alpine heath, Cassiope Mertensianae, with its multitude of rose-tinted flower bells, sometimes is found, though not in the profusion it displays in Desolation Valley.

Another very interesting plant is the Alpine currant (Ribes Inebrians, Lindl.) which between the years 1832 and 1907 has received no less than eight different names accorded by European and American botanists. It is a remarkable shrub, in that it occurs higher on the mountain than any other form of vegetation except lichens. The roots penetrate deeply into the crevices of the lava rocks, enabling it to withstand the fierce winds. The flowers, which appear in August, are white, shading to pink, and the red berries, which are not especially palatable on account of their insipid taste and numerous seeds, are abundant in September. Another new Mt. Rose ribes has been named Churchii in honor of Professor J.E. Church, Jr., whose original work at the Mt. Rose Observatory is described in the chapter devoted to that purpose.

Growing at elevations of from 6000 to 10,000 feet, displaying a profusion of white flowers sometimes delicately tinged with light purple is the Phlox Douglasii, Hook. It is low but with loose, much-branched prostrate stems and remarkably stout, almost woody roots.

A new Alpine willow (Salix Caespitosa) has also been discovered. Professor Kennedy thus writes of it:

The melting snow, as it comes through and over the rocks in the nature of a spring, brings with it particles of sand and vegetation, which form a very shallow layer of soil on a flat area to one side of the main branch of the stream. On this the willow branches adhere like ivy, rooting at every joint and interlaced so as to form a dense mat. From these, erect leafy shoots, one or two inches high, appear, with the many flowered catkins extending above the foliage. The pistillate plants occupy separate but adjacent areas to the staminate ones.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE CHAPARRAL OF THE TAHOE REGION

The word chaparral is a Spanish word, transferred bodily into our language, without, however, retaining its strict and original significance. In Spanish it means a plantation of evergreen oaks, or, thick bramble-bushes entangled with thorny shrubs in clumps. Hence, in the west, it has come to mean any low or scrub brush that thickly covers a hill or mountain-side. As there is a varied chaparral in the Tahoe region, it is well for the visitor to know of what it is mainly composed.

Experience has demonstrated that where the larger lumber is cut off close on the Sierran slopes of the Tahoe region the low bushy chaparral at once takes full possession. It seems to prevent the tree seeds from growing and thus is an effectual preventive to reforestation. This, however, is generally not so apparent east of the main range as it is on the western slopes. One of its chief elements is the manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) easily distinguishable by the red wood of its stem and larger branches, glossy leaves, waxen blossoms (when in flower) and green or red berries in the early autumn.

The snow-bush abounds. It is a low sage-green bush, very thorny, hence is locally called "bide-a-wee" from the name given by the English soldiers to a very thorny bush they had to encounter during the Boer War. In the late days of spring and even as late as July it is covered with a white blossom that makes it glorious and attractive.

Then there is the thimble-berry with its big, light yellow, sprawling leaves, and its attractively red, thimble-shaped, but rather tasteless berries. The Indians, however, are very fond of them, and so are some of the birds and animals, likewise of the service berries, which look much like the blueberry, though their flavor is not so choice.

Here and there patches of the wild gooseberry add to the tangle of the chaparral. The gooseberries when ripe are very red, as are the currants, but they are armored with a tough skin completely covered with sharp, hairy thorns. In Southern California all the fruit of the wild ribes have the thorns, but they do not compare in penetrating power and strength with those of the Tahoe gooseberries.

One of the most charming features of the chaparral is the mountain ash, especially when the berries are ripe and red. The Scotch name rowan seems peculiarly appropriate. Even while the berries are yellow they are attractive to the eye, and alluring to the birds, but when they become red they give a splendid dash of rich color that sets off the whole mountain side.

The mountain mahogany is not uncommon (Cereocarpus parvifolius, Nutt.) and though its green flowers are inconspicuous, its long, solitary plumes at fruiting time attract the eye.

While the California laurel (Umbellularia Californica, Nutt.) often grows to great height, it is found in chaparral clumps on the mountain sides. It is commonly known as the bay tree, on account of the bay-like shape and odor of its leaves when crushed. It gives a spicy fragrance to the air and is always welcome to those who know it.

In many places throughout the mountains of the Tahoe region there are clumps or groves of wild cherry (Prunus Demissa, Walpers), the cherries generally ripening in September. But if one expects the ripe red wild cherries to have any of the delicious richness and sweetness of the ripe Queen Anne or other good variety he is doomed to sad disappointment. For they are sour and bitter—bitter as quinine,—and that is perhaps the reason their juice has been extracted and made into medicine supposed to have extraordinary tonic and healing virtue.

The elder is often found (Sambucus Glauca, Nutt.), sometimes quite tall and at other times broken down by the snow, but bravely covering its bent and gnarled trunks and branches with dense foliage and cream-white blossom-clusters. The berries are always attractive to the eye in their purple tint, with the creamy blush on them, and happy is that traveler who has an expert make for him an elderberry pie, or distill the rich cordial the berries make.

Another feature of the chaparral often occupies the field entirely to itself, viz., the chamisal or greasewood (Adenostoma fasciculatum, Hook, and Arn.). Its small clustered and needle-like leaves, richly covered with large, feathery panicles of tiny blossoms, give it an appearance not unlike Scotch heather, and make a mountainside dainty and beautiful.

The California buckeye (Aesculus Californica, Nutt.) is also found, especially upon stream banks or on the moist slopes of the canyons. Its light gray limbs, broad leaves, and long, white flower-spikes make it an attractive shrub or tree (for it often reaches forty feet in height), and when the leaves drop, as they do early, the skeleton presents a beautiful and delicate network against the deep azure of the sky.

Another feature of the chaparral is the scrub oak. In 1913 the bushes were almost free from acorns. They generally appear only every other year, and when they do bear the crop is a wonderfully numerous one.

A vast amount of wild lilac (Ceanothus Velutinus) is found on all the slopes. It generally blooms in June and then the hillsides are one fragrant and glowing mass of vivid white tinged with the creamy hue that adds so much charm to the flowers.

The year 1913, however, was a peculiar year, throughout, for plant life. In the middle of September in Page's Meadows a large patch of ceanothus was in full bloom, either revealing a remarkably late flowering, or a second effort at beautification.

Another ceanothus, commonly called mountain birch, is often found. When in abundance and in full flower it makes a mountain side appear as if covered with drifted snow.

Willows abound in the canyons and on the mountains of the Tahoe region, and they are an invariable sign of the near presence of water.

There is scarcely a canyon where alders, cottonwoods and quaking aspens may not be found. In 1913 either the lack of water, some adverse climatic condition, or some fungus blight caused the aspen leaves to blotch and fall from the trees as early as the beginning of September. As a rule they remain until late in October, changing to autumnal tints of every richness and hue and reminding one of the glorious hues of the eastern maples when touched by the first frosts of winter.

No one used to exploring dry and desert regions, such as the Colorado and Mohave Deserts of Southern California, the Grand Canyon region, the Navajo Reservation, etc., in Arizona and New Mexico, the constant presence of water in the Tahoe region is a perpetual delight. Daily in my trips here I have wondered at the absence of my canteen and sometimes in moments of forgetfulness I would reach for it, and be almost paralyzed with horror not to find it in its accustomed place. But the never-ending joy of feeling that one could start out for a day's trip, or a camping-out expedition of a week or a month and never give the subject of water a moment's thought, can only be appreciated by those who are direfully familiar with the dependence placed upon the canteen in less favored regions.

CHAPTER XXXII

HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES OF THE TAHOE REGION

By "trees" in this chapter I mean only the evergreen trees—the pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, junipers and tamaracks. Many visitors like to know at least enough when they are looking at a tree, to tell which of the above species it belongs to. All I aim to do here is to seek to make clear the distinguishing features of the various trees, and to give some of the more readily discernible signs of the different varieties of the same species found in the region.

It must not be forgotten that tree growth is largely dependent upon soil conditions. The soil of the Tahoe region is chiefly glacial detritus.

On the slopes and summits of the ridges it is sandy, gravelly, and liberally strewn with masses of drift bowlders. The flats largely formed of silting while they still constituted beds of lakes, have a deep soil of fine sand and mold resting on coarse gravel and bowlder drift. Ridges composed of brecciated lavas, which crumble easily under the influence of atmospheric agencies, are covered with soil two or three feet, or even more, in depth, where gentle slopes or broad saddles have favored deposition and prevented washing. The granite areas of the main range and elsewhere have a very thin soil. The flats at the entrance of small streams into Lake Tahoe are covered with deep soil, owing to deposition of vegetable matter brought from the slopes adjacent to their channels. As a whole, the soil of the region is of sufficient fertility to support a heavy forest growth, its depth depends wholly on local circumstances favoring washing and removal of the soil elements as fast as formed, or holding them in place and compelling accumulations.[11]

Coniferous species of trees constitute fully ninety-five per cent. of the arborescent growth in the region. The remaining five per cent. consists mostly of different species of oak, ash, maple, mountain-mahogany, aspen, cottonwood, California buckeye, western red-bud, arborescent willows, alders, etc.

Of the conifers the species are as follows: yellow pine, pinus ponderosa; Jeffrey pine, pinus jeffreyi; sugar pine, pinus lambertiana; lodge-pole pine, pinus murrayana; white pine, pinus monticola; digger pine, pinus sabiniana; white-bark pine, pinus albicaulis; red fir, pseudotsuga taxifolia; white fir, abies concolor; Shasta fir, abies magnifica; patton hemlock or alpine spruce, tsuga pattoniana; incense cedar, libocedrus decurrens; western juniper, juniperus occidentalis; yew, taxus brevifolia.

[Footnote 11: John B. Leiberg, in Forest Conditions in the Northern Sierra Nevada.]

The range and chief characteristic of these trees, generally speaking, are as follows:

Digger Pine. This is seldom found in the Tahoe region, except in the lower reaches of the canyons on the west side of the range. It is sometimes known as the Nut Pine, for it bears a nut of which the natives are very fond. It has two cone forms, one in which the spurs point straight down, the other in which they are more or less curved at the tip. They grow to a height of forty to fifty and occasionally ninety feet high; with open crown and thin gray foliage.

Western Juniper. This is a typical tree of the arid regions east of the Sierra, yet it is to be found scattered throughout the Tahoe country, generally at an elevation between five thousand and eight thousand feet. It ranges in height from ten to twenty-five or even sixty-five feet. Its dull red bark, which shreds or flakes easily, its berries, which begin a green color, shade through to gray, and when ripe are a rich purple, make it readily discernible. It is a characteristic feature of the scenery at timber line in many Tahoe landscapes.

With the crowns beaten by storms into irregular shapes, often dead on one side but flourishing on the other, the tops usually dismantled and the trunks excessively thickened at base, such figures, whether erect, half overthrown or wholly crouching, are the most picturesque of mountain trees and are frequently of very great age.—Jepson.

Yew. This is not often found and then only in the west canyons above the main range. It is a small and insignificant tree, rarely exceeding forty feet in height. It has a thin red-brown smooth bark which becomes shreddy as it flakes off in thin and rather small pieces. The seeds are borne on the under side of the sprays and when mature set in a fleshy scarlet cup, the whole looking like a brilliantly colored berry five or six inches long. They ripen in July or August.

Incense Cedar. This is commonly found all over the region at elevations below 7500 feet, though its chief habitat is at elevations of 3500 to 6000 feet. It grows to a height of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet, with a strongly conical trunk, very thick at the base, and gradually diminishing in size upward. The bark is thick, red-brown, loose and fibrous, and when the tree is old, broken into prominent heavy longitudinal furrows. The cones are red-brown, oblong-ovate when closed, three-fourths to an inch long.

Shasta Fir. This is found on the summits, slopes and shores of Lake Tahoe, and to levels 6200 feet in elevation on the slopes and summits directly connected with the main range. It is found along the Mount Pluto ridge. It is essentially a tree of the mountains, where the annual precipitation ranges from fifty inches upward. In the Tahoe region it is locally known as the red fir. Sometimes it is called the red bark fir and golden fir. It grows from sixty to even one hundred and seventy-five feet high with trunk one to five feet in diameter and a narrowly cone-shaped crown composed of numerous horizontal strata of fan-shaped sprays. The bark on young trees is whitish or silvery, on old trunks dark red, very deeply and roughly fissured. The cones when young are of a beautiful dull purple, when mature becoming brown.

White Pine. This is found on northern slopes as low down as 6500 feet, though it generally ranges above 7000 feet, and is quite common. It sometimes is called the silver pine, and generally in the Tahoe region, the mountain pine. It grows to a height of from fifty to one hundred and seventy-five feet, the branches slender and spreading or somewhat drooping, and mostly confined to the upper portion of the shaft. The trunk is from one to six feet in diameter and clothed with a very smooth though slightly checked whitish or reddish bark. The needles are five (rarely four) in a place, very slender, one to three and three-fourths inches long, sheathed at the base by thinnish narrow deciduous scales, some of which are one inch long. The cones come in clusters of one to seven, from six to eight or rarely ten inches long, very slender when closed and usually curved towards the tip, black-purple or green when young, buff-brown when ripe. It is best recognized by its light-gray smooth bark, broken into squarish plates, its pale-blue-green foliage composed of short needles, and its pendulous cones so slender as to give rise to the name "Finger-Cone Pine."

Sugar Pine. This is found on the lower terraces of Tahoe, fringing the region with a sparse and scattering growth, but it is not found on the higher slopes of the Sierra. On the western side its range is nearly identical with that of the red fir. It grows from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet high, the young and adult trees symmetrical, but the aged trees commonly with broken summits or characteristically flat-topped with one or two long arm-like branches exceeding shorter ones. The trunk is from two to eight feet in diameter, and the bark brown or reddish, closely fissured into rough ridges. The needles are slender, five in a bundle, two to three and a half inches long. The cones are pendulous, borne on stalks at the end of the branches, mostly in the very summit of the tree, very long-oblong, thirteen to eighteen inches long, four to six inches in diameter when opened.

This pine gains its name from its sugary exudation, sought by the native tribes, which forms hard white crystallized nodules on the upper side of fire or ax wounds in the wood. This flow contains resin, is manna-like, has cathartic properties, and is as sweet as cane-sugar. The seeds are edible. Although very small they are more valued by the native tribes than the large seeds of the Digger Pine on account of their better flavor. In former days, when it came October, the Indians went to the high mountains about their valleys to gather the cones. They camped on the ridges where the sugar pines grow and celebrated their sylvan journey by tree-climbing contests among the men. In these latter days, being possessed of the white man's ax, they find it more convenient to cut the tree down. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable of all pines, viewed either from the standpoint of its economic value or sylvan interest. It is the largest of pine trees, considered whether as to weight or girth, and more than any other tree gives beauty and distinction to the Sierran forest.—Jepson.

The long cones found in abundance about Tahoe Tavern are those of the sugar pine.

Yellow Pine and Jeffrey Pine. These are practically one and the same, though the latter is generally regarded as a variety and the former the type. Mr. Leiberg says:

The two forms differ chiefly in the size of the cones, in the tint and odor of the foliage, and in the color and thickness of the bark, differences which are insufficient to constitute specific characters. The most conspicuous of the above differences is that in the size of the cones, which may seemingly hold good if only a few hundred trees are examined. But when one comes to deal with thousands of individuals the distinction vanishes. It is common to find trees of the Jeffrey type as to foliage and bark that bear the big cones, and the characteristic smaller cones of the typical yellow pine, both at the same time and on the same individual, while old cones strewn about on the ground indicate that in some seasons trees of the Jeffrey type produce only small-sized cones. The odor and the color of leaves and bark are more or less dependent on soil conditions and the inherent vitality of the individual tree, and the same characters are found in specimens belonging to the yellow and Jeffrey pine. It is noticeable that the big-cone variety preferably grows at considerable elevation and on rocky sterile ground, while the typical form of the yellow pine prevails throughout the lower regions and on tracts with a more generous soil.

The yellow pine has a wider range than any other of the Tahoe conifers, though on the high, rocky areas, south and west of Rubicon Springs it is lacking. It crosses from the western slopes to the eastern sides of the Sierras and down into the Tahoe basin over the heads of Miller and McKinney Creeks, in both places as a thin line, or rather as scattering trees mixed with Shasta fir and white pine.

It grows from sixty to two hundred and twenty-five feet high with trunk two to nine feet in diameter. The limbs in mature trees are horizontal or even drooping. The bark of typical trees is tawny yellow or yellow-brown, divided by fissures into large smoothish or scaly-surfaced plates which are often one to four feet long and one-half to one and a quarter feet wide. The needles are in threes, five to ten inches long; the cones reddish brown.

It must be noted, too, that "the bark is exceedingly variable, black-barked or brown-barked trees, roughly or narrowly fissured, are very common and in their extreme forms very different in trunk appearance from the typical or most-abundant 'turtle-back' form with broad, yellow or light brown plates."—Jepson.

Lodge Pole Pine. The range of this tree is almost identical with that of the Shasta fir, though here and there it is found at as low an altitude as 4500 feet. It loves the margins of creeks, glades and lakes situated at altitudes of 6000 feet and upward, where it usually forms a fringe of nearly pure growth in the wet and swampy portions of the ground. In the Tahoe region it is invariably called a tamarack or tamarack pine. It is a symmetrical tree commonly reaching as high as fifty to eighty feet, but occasionally one hundred and twenty-five feet. When stunted, however, it is only a few feet. The bark is remarkably thin, rarely more than one quarter inch thick, light gray in color, very smooth but flaking into small thin scales. There are only two needles to a bunch, in a sheath, one and a half to two and three quarters inches long. The cones are chestnut brown, one to one and three quarters inches long.

It is when sleeping under the lodge pole pines that you begin to appreciate their perfect charm and beauty. You unroll your blankets at the foot of a stately tree at night, unconscious and careless as to what tree it is. During the night, when the moon is at the full, you awaken and look up into a glory of shimmering light. The fine tapering shape, the delicate fairy-like beauty, instantly appeal to the sensitive soul and he feels he is in a veritable temple of beauty.

They are very sensitive trees. In many places a mere grass fire, quick and very fierce for a short time, has destroyed quite a number.

White Fir. This follows closely the range of the incense cedar, though in some places it is found as high as 8700 feet. It is one of the most perfect trees in the Sierras. Ranging from sixty to one hundred and fifty and even two hundred feet high, with a narrow crown composed of flat sprays and a trunk naked for one-third to one-half its height and from one to six feet in diameter, with a smooth bark, silvery or whitish in young trees, becoming thick and heavily fissured into rounded ridges on old trunks, and gray or drab-brown in color, it is readily distinguishable, with its companion, the red fir, by the regularity of construction of trunk, branch and branchlet. As Smeaton Chase expresses it, "The fine smooth arms, set in regular formation, divide and redivide again and again ad infinitum, weaving at last into a maze of exquisitely symmetrical twigs and branchlets."

Red Fir. The range of the red fir is irregular. It occurs on the Rubicon River and some of the headwaters of the west-flowing streams, reaching a general height of 6000 feet, though it is occasionally found as high as 7000 feet. In some parts of California this is known as Douglas Spruce, and Jepson, in his Silva of California definitely states:

The name "fir" as applied to the species is so well established among woodsmen that for the sake of intelligibility the combination Douglas Fir, which prevents confusion with the true firs and has been adopted by the Pacific Coast Lumberman's Association, is here accepted, notwithstanding that the name used by botanists, "Douglas Spruce" is actually more fitting on account of the greater number of spruce-like characteristics. It is neither true spruce, fir, nor hemlock, but a marked type of a distinct genus, namely, pseudotsuga.

It must not be confounded with the red silver fir (Abies Magnifica) so eloquently described as the chief delight of the Yosemite region by Smeaton Chase. It grows from seventy to two hundred and fifty or possibly three hundred and fifty feet high, and is the most important lumber tree of the country, considering the quality of its timber, the size and length of its logs, and the great amount of heavy wood and freedom from knots, shakes or defects. On young trees the bark is smooth, gray or mottled, sometimes alder-like; on old trunks one to six and a half inches thick, soft or putty-like, dark brown, fissured into broad heavy furrows. The young rapid growth in the open woods produces "red fir", the older slower growth in denser woods is "yellow fir". Every tree to a greater or lesser extent exhibits successively these two phases, which are dependent upon situation and exposure.

The chief difference between the white and red fir is in the spiculae or leaves. Those of the red fir are shorter, stubbier and stiffer than those of the white. The bark, however, is pretty nearly alike in young trees and shows a marked difference when they get to be forty to fifty years old.

The Alpine Spruce (Hesperopeuce Pattoniana Lemmon) is found only in the highest elevations. Common in Alaska it is limited in the Tahoe region to the upper points of forests that creep up along glacier beds and volcanic ravines, close to perpetual ice. It disappears at 10,000 feet altitude on Mt. Whitney and is found nowhere south of this point. On Tallac, Mt. Rose and all the higher peaks of the Tahoe region it is common, giving constant delight with its slender shaft, eighty to a hundred feet high, and with a diameter at its base of from six to twelve feet. It is only in the lower portions of the belt where it occurs. Higher it is reduced to low conical masses of foliage or prostrate creeping shrubs.

By many it is regarded as a hemlock, but it is not strictly so. It was first discovered in 1852 by John Jeffrey, who followed David Douglas in his explorations of the forests of the American Northwest.

In favorable situations, the lower limbs are retained and become long, out-reaching, and spreading over the mountain slope for many feet; the upper limbs are irregularly disposed, not whorled; they strike downward from the start (so that it is almost impossible to climb one of the trees for want of foothold), then curving outward to the outline of the tree, they are terminated by short, hairy branchlets that decline gracefully, and are decorated with pendant cones which are glaucous purple until maturity, then leather brown, with reflexed scales.

The main stem sends out strong ascending shoots, the leading one terminating so slenderly as to bend from side to side with its many purple pendants before the wind, and shimmering in the sunlight with rare beauty.—Lemmon.

On the slopes of Mt. Rose near timber line, which ranges from 9700 to 10,000 feet according to exposures, while still a tree of considerable size, it loses its symmetrical appearance. Professor Kennedy says:

Buffeted by the fierce winter winds and snows, the branches on the west side of the tree are either entirely wanting or very short and gnarled, and the bark is commonly denuded. Unlike its associate, Pinus Albicaulis, which is abundant as a prostrate shrub far above timber line, the spruce is rarely encountered above timber line at this place, but here and there a hardy individual may be found lurking among the pines. The greatest elevation at which it was noticed is 10,500 feet.

To me this is one of the most beautiful of Sierran trees. Its delicate silvery hue, and the rarely exquisite shading from the old growth to the new, its gracefulness, the quaint and fascinating tilt of its tip which waveringly bends over in obedience to whichever breeze is blowing makes it the most alluringly feminine of all the trees of the Sierra Nevada.

It is interesting to note the differences in the cones, and in the way they grow; singly, in clusters, at the end of branches, on the stems, large, medium-sized, small, short and stubby, long and slender, conical, etc. Then, too, while the pines generally have cones every year, the firs seem to miss a year, and to bear only alternate years.

The gray squirrels are often great reapers of the cones, before they are ripe. They cut them down and then eat off the tips of the scales so that they present a pathetically stripped appearance.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS OF THE TAHOE REGION

Birds. The bird life of the Tahoe region does not seem particularly interesting or impressive to the casual observer. At first sight there are not many birds, and those that do appear have neither so vivid plumage nor sweet song as their feathered relatives of the east, south and west. Nevertheless there are several interesting species, and while this chapter makes no pretense to completeness it suggests what one untrained observer without birds particularly on his mind has witnessed in the course of his several trips to the Tahoe region.

It soon becomes evident that altitude has much to do with bird life, some, as the meadow-lark and blackbird never being found higher than the Lake shore, others at the intermediate elevations where the Alpine hemlock thrives, while still others, such as the rosy finch and the rock-wren, are found only on the highest and most craggy peaks.

While water birds are not numerous in the summer, observant visitors at Lake Tahoe for the first time are generally surprised to find numbers of sea gulls. They fly back and forth, however, to and from their native haunts by the sea. They never raise their young here, generally making their return flight to the shores of the Pacific in September, October and at latest November, to come back in March and April. While out on the mountain in these months, fifty or more miles west of Lake Tahoe I have seen them, high in the air, flying straight to the place they desired.

The blue heron in its solitary and stately watchfulness is occasionally seen, and again etches itself like a Japanese picture against the pure blue of the sky. The American bittern is also seen rarely.

Kingfishers are found, both on the lakes and streams. It is fascinating to watch them unobserved, perched on a twig, as motionless as if petrified, until, suddenly, their prey is within grasp, and with a sudden splash is seized.

On several of the lakes, occasionally on bays of Tahoe itself, and often in the marshy lands and sloughs of the Upper Truckee, near Tallac, ducks, mallard and teal are found. Mud chickens in abundance are also found pretty nearly everywhere all through the year.

The weird cry of the loon is not infrequently heard on some of the lakes, and one of these latter is named Loon Lake from the fact that several were found there for a number of years.

Flocks of white pelicans are sometimes seen. Blackbirds of two or three kinds are found in the marshes, also killdeer, jacksnipe and the ever active and interesting spotted sandpipers. A few meadow-larks now and again are heard singing their exquisite song, reminding one of Browning's wise thrush which "sings each song twice over, lest you should think he cannot recapture that first fine careless rapture."

Doves are not common, but now and again one may hear their sweet melancholy song, telling us in Joaquin Miller's poetic and exquisite interpretation: