Part 21 (1/2)
Supported entirely by mining]
The city of Great Falls, Montana, in the Missouri River basin, is destined to become a great industrial centre, because of the presence of unlimited water-power afforded by the Great Falls of the Missouri River. No other reason would lead to the growth of a settlement at this particular spot, for boundless plains extend about it in every direction.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 121.--b.u.t.tE, MONTANA
A city of smelters]
The mining cities of the West, such as b.u.t.te, Virginia City, and Leadville, ill.u.s.trate the growth of important centres of population in the vicinity of large deposits of minerals. In the case of these cities, as well as many others, there are no agricultural resources in the surrounding country to support the people gathered together here. Nearly all their food has to be s.h.i.+pped hundreds of miles.
Cities supported by mining are less likely to be permanent than those supported by an agricultural community, by commerce, or by manufacturing.
THE FOREST BELT OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS
No other coniferous forests in the world can compare with those covering the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges.
They are remarkable both for the number of species and for the size of the trees. The moderate temperature and the moist winds from the Pacific seem to offer the conditions which are best suited to the growth of cone-bearing trees.
As we go northward along the coast, or ascend the mountain slopes, we find the climate growing cooler and cooler. With this changing climate the species of conifers change, for each has become accustomed to certain conditions of temperature and moisture, which it must have in order to thrive.
The Sierra Nevada is the most continuous lofty range of mountains in North America. From the great valley at its western base to the crest of the range the distance is about sixty miles. Because of the great height of the mountains, there is found within these few miles every variety of climate between the sub-tropical atmosphere of the valley, where oranges ripen to perfection, and the arctic cold of the summits, where little or no vegetation can live.
Thus, by climbing a single mountain range, we may experience all kinds of climate, and have an opportunity to observe the different forms of plant life such as we could not otherwise obtain without a journey of several thousand miles.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 122.--FOREST BELT OF THE FOOT-HILLS, SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS]
Pa.s.sing through the groves of valley oak, and beyond the orange orchards at the foot of the mountains, we reach the foot-hills and begin to ascend. Several species of oak are found upon the hillsides and in the valleys, while mingled with them in many places appear such shrubs as the California lilac, chamiso, and manzanita.
Where the soil is too poor or the slopes too steep for the trees, these shrubs, commonly called ”chaparral,” are ma.s.sed together in almost impenetrable thickets.
The first of the coniferous trees which we meet is an odd-looking one known as the digger pine. Instead of having a single straight trunk it divides a short distance above the ground into many branches.
The large cones are armed with long hooked spines, so that they must be handled rather carefully, but when opened they are found to be filled with nutritious nuts. These nuts were an important source of food for the Indians who once inhabited the foot-hills.
Now the Indians are gone, but the nuts are not wasted, if one may judge by the fragments of the cones with which the squirrels strew the ground.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 123.--THE DIGGER PINE]
The road climbs the foot-hills by many turns and windings through canons and up and down ridges. At an elevation of about two thousand feet specimens of the yellow pine appear. The trees increase in size and grow more closely together as we ascend. We soon find ourselves in the edge of the forest belt which extends unbroken northward to the arctic zone, and upward to the line of almost perpetual snow.
The yellow pine, so named from the color of the bark, sometimes attains a diameter of six feet, but does not form so dense forests as we shall find higher on the mountains. The rays of the warm sun, reaching down between the trees to the carpet of needles and ”bear clover,” draw out their spicy fragrance. The yellow pine, although it does not afford as good a quality of lumber as some of the other pines, is one of our most important trees because of its wide distribution through nearly all mountains of the West.
It has a much wider range in elevation than most trees, one variety reaching upward nearly to the timber line.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 124.--A YELLOW PINE FOREST]
After getting well into the yellow pine forest, we soon come upon other trees that contend with the pines for a footing upon the slopes and for a bit of the suns.h.i.+ne. Among these the black oaks deserve special mention, for in places they form dense groves upon the ridges. The cedars, with their rich brown bark and flat, drooping branches, are easily recognized. As these trees grow old they become gnarled and knotty and very picturesque.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 125.--SUGAR PINE]
We first meet that ”king of pines,” the sugar pine, upon the more shaded mountain slopes. Although higher up, on barren, rocky ridges, this tree grows to n.o.ble size, yet it cannot withstand heat and dryness. Our attention may be first called to the sugar pine by the slender cones, ten to fifteen inches in length, which are scattered over the ground. Then, as we look up to see whence the cones come, our eyes light upon the smooth trunks, often over six feet in diameter and reaching up one hundred and fifty feet before the branches appear. From the ends of the long, drooping branches hang slender green cones. The name of this pine is derived from the fact that a white sugar gathers in little bunches at the spots where the trunk has been injured. This sugar is pleasant to the taste and somewhat medicinal.