Many of them are already showing signs of decay, possibly a proof that they grew rapidly and are rotting with equal or greater speed.
[Illustration: Pleasure Party on the 'Wild Goose', Lake Tahoe] [Illustration: Looking Toward the Casino, Tahoe Tavern, Lake Tahoe] [Illustration: A Trail Party About to Leave Tahoe Tavern] [Illustration: On the Trail Returning from the Summit of Mt.

Tallac] At this elevation, 7000 to 8000 feet, the red fir begins to appear.

It is an attractive and ever-pleasing tree, its dark red bark soon making it a familar friend.
How remarkably a woodsman can read what would be an unintelligible jumble of facts to a city man.

Here on one trip we found a tree.

Its top was smitten off and removed a distance of forty to fifty feet.
Parts of the tree were scattered for a distance of two hundred yards.
What caused it?
The unobservant man would have passed it by, and the observant, though untrained and inexperienced, would have wondered without an answer.