Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/295

Rh change being accounted for by the greater elevation of the country, and the superior dryness of the climate.

There are several pines common to this more southern region: the sugar pine (P. Lambertina), balsam fir (P. Grandis), and P. Contorta, or twisted pine. Besides these, the manzanita (Arctorstaphylos, Glauca) and Rhododendron maximus belong to the southern portion of the State.

The game natural to forests and mountains is more abundant also in the southern ranges; and, from the greater frequency of open or prairie spots in the mountains, much more easily hunted.

The eastern side of the Cascade Range is but thinly timbered, and that with the yellow pine (P. Ponderosa), which has a trunk from three to five feet thick, and attains an average height of a hundred feet. The foliage of this pine is scattering, coarse, and longer than that of the Eastern varieties. Few shrubs grow on this slope of the mountains; and the smooth, grassy terraces have more the appearance of cultivated parks than of natural forest. Along the streams of Eastern Oregon arc but few trees; generally the willow, alder, cottonwood, and birch.

Upon the greater elevations of the eastern slope, the western larch (Larix occidentalis) appears quite frequently. It is a large tree, tall and slender, with short branches, leaves long and slender, and foliage of a pale, bluish green, light and feathery.

More rarely occurs, in peculiar situations, the silver fir (Pinus amabilis), so called from the silvery appearance of the under side of the dark-green foliage. The cones grow erect near the summit of the tree, and are of a size of six inches by two and a half, of a dark-purple color, and rather smooth appearance. The