While the firs, cedars, and redwoods form the major portion of the forests in the more humid regions on the western side of the continent, there are two species of pines growing in drier situations which in a general view are even more characteristic of the Pacific forest than are the sequoias. These two pines, well worthy to stand side by side with the giant firs and still more gigantic redwoods, are known as the sugar-pine and the yellow pine. The sugar-pine grows amid the mountains from southwestern British Columbia, southward through western Washington, Oregon, and on the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges of California, at elevations ranging from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. It frequently clothes steep declivities or bids defiance to the storms on the crests of sharp ridges. In size it is scarcely exceeded by any of its companions excepting the firs and sequoias. It frequently attains a height of from 200 to 275 feet, with a diameter at the base of from 8 to 14, and in some instances of over 20 feet. Individual trees are known which have a height of 245 feet and are 18 feet in diameter. The branches are usually high above the ground and widely spreading. In the case of well-grown individuals they leave the main trunk with a sweeping, downward curve, which midway out changes to an upward curve, and at the extreme distal end droops once more. At the extremity of many of the far-reaching boughs there are suspended one or two cones, each 12 or 14 inches long and sometimes over 8 inches in diameter. The peculiar and frequently remarkably regular curvature of the great branches, giving them the form of half a Cupid's bow, imparts to these mighty pines a grace and symmetry possessed by few other trees. The familiar name of this great pine refers to the fact that from wounds or incisions in its trunk there exudes a sweet sap which is considered by many persons to exceed even the sap of the maple in agreeableness of flavour. Lovers of beautiful trees will agree in considering the sugar-pine as the noblest of its family growing in the woods of America, if not the most majestic of its kindred in the world. Its only rival, but of a different type of beauty, is the Norfolk Island pine, of the south sea islands.