October-December 1874, Shasta, Yosemite, Dead Rivers Image 26

45 forest excepting a few [specimens] of Douglas & Libo. then quite abruptly gives way to picea [amabilis] magnifica wh constitutes the whole forest up to height of 8000 feet. Here it splices with pinus [flexilis] albicaulis wh runs up to 10000 In this splice only a few p Contorta & Monticola appear, so few as to be seen as noticeable. In the picea [amabilis] magnifica I did not observe a [grandis] concolor or any other tree in a belt 2 or 3 miles wide. No such exclusiveness instanced in the southern portion of range. The [amabilis] magnifica of the South is however more perfect, less stormbroken & larger 46 & more inclined to form [fine] individual groves These are very fine while young but more or less broken when old. Also the whorls of branches are more drooped perhaps on account of heavier & longer lasting snows Perhaps this would account also for the greater number of broken axes, few of these firs exceed a thickness of five feet & height of 150 Their soil is exclusively red lava, the best fir soil is a mixture of slate & granite. The Williamson spruce is not so abundant or so perfect herehttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/1844/thumbnail.jp