A little lower, the transition zone offers a noteworthy intermingling of species. Down from the stormy heights come alpine trees to lock branches with types from warmer levels. Here you see lodgepole pine (_Pinus murrayana_), that wonderful restorer of waste places which sends forth countless tiny seedlings to cover fire-swept areas and lava fields with forerunners of a forest. Here, too, you will find western white pine (_Pinus monticola_), the fair lady of the genus, whose soft, delicate foliage, finely chiseled trunk, and golden brown cones denote its gentleness; and Engelmann spruce (_Picea Engelmannii_) of greener blue than any other, and hung with pendants of soft seed cones, saved from pilfering rodents by pungent, bristling needles. Here also are western larch or tamarack (_Larix occidentalis_); or, rarely, on our northern peaks, Lyall's larch (_Larix Lyallii_), whose naked branches send out tiny fascicles of soft pale leaves; and Noble fir (_Abies nobilis_), stately, magnificent, proud of its supremacy over all. And you may come upon a rare cluster of Alaska cedar (_Chamæcyparis nootkatensis_), here at its southern limit, reaching down from the Coast range of British Columbia almost to meet the Great sugar pines (_Pinus lambertiana_) which come up from the granite heights of the California sierra to play an important role in the southern Oregon forests. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, WEISTER Where man's a pygmy. A Noble Fir, 175 feet to first limb.] Across the roll of ridge and canyon, you see them all; and when you come to know them well, each form, each shade of green, though far away, will claim your recognition. Yonder, in a hollow of the hills, a cluster of blue-green heads is raised above the familiar color of the hemlocks. Cross to it, and stand amidst the crowning glory of Nature's art in building trees. About you rise columns of Noble firs, faultless in symmetry, straight as the line of sight, clean as granite shafts. Carry the picture with you; nowhere away from the forests of the Columbia can you look upon such perfect trees. [Illustration: Firs and Hemlocks, in Clarke County, Washington.]