laucous 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 observ