altitudes all over our Western mountains.

Continuing our climb toward the alpine regions, we reach an elevation
where the trees begin to show the effects of the winter storms. The
fact that life is not so easy as it is farther down the slopes is
apparent from the gnarled and stunted trunks. Here are the alpine
hemlocks, dwarf pines, and junipers.

The juniper somewhat resembles the cedar, but has a short, thick
trunk. Near the timber line this tree grows but a few feet high
and becomes exceedingly gnarled. It seems to like the most exposed
and rocky places, but in truth, like many another form of plant
life, it has become accustomed to such locations because it cannot
successfully compete with other trees in happier ones.

Most weird and picturesque of all are the dwarf white pines, growing
upon the extensive mountain shoulders and ridges at a height of ten
thousand to eleven thousand five hundred feet above the sea. Since
an arctic climate surrounds them for nine months in the year, their
growth is very slow. Their short, gnarled trunks and branches are
twisted into all sorts of fantastic shapes. When, after struggling
with the cold and the storms, the trees at last die, they do not
quickly decay and fall, but continue to stand for many years.

These trees become smaller and smaller in size until at the extreme
timber line they are almost prostrate upon the ground. In many
cases they rise only three or four feet, and have the appearance
of shrubs rather than trees. Still above them, however, there are
rocky slopes and snow-banks reaching to an elevation of over fourteen
thousand feet. If we examine these upper slopes carefully we shall
find that they are not utterly devoid of life, but that certain
plants have been able to obtain a foothold upon them. In sheltered
nooks there are little shrubs and lichens. In some places among the
rocks, beneath overhanging snow-banks, beautiful flowers spring
up at the coming of the late summer, blossom, mature their seeds,
and die with the return of the winter cold.

[Illustration: FIG. 129.--THE UPPER LIMIT OF THE TIMBER

Sierra Nevada Mountains]

The magnificent forests through which we have passed in our long
climb, if destroyed by the lumberman, cannot be replaced for hundreds
of years. They contribute much to the glory of the mountains. They
hold back the water so that it does not run off rapidly, and thus
aid in giving rise to innumerable clear, cold springs. The sprin