falls however and the in the are then in full bloom and sing songs from one end of the range to the other of course the snow on the lower of the rivers is first melted then that on the higher fountains most exposed to sunshine and about a month later the cooler shadowy fountains send down their treasures thus allowing the main trunk streams nearly six weeks to get their waters hurried through tlie foot hills and across the to the sea therefore very violent spring floods are avoided and will be as long as the forests last the rivers of the north half of the range are still less subject to sudden floods because their upper fountains in great part lie protected from the changes of the floods the weather beneath thick folds of just as many of the rivers of lie beneath folds of ice coming to the light farther down the range in large springs while those of the high lie on the surface of solid gi exposed to every change of temperature more than ninety per cent of the water derived from the snow and ice of mount is at once absorbed and drained away beneath the folds of the mountain where and groping in the dark they at length find larger and like from which they and cool in the f of large springs some of them so large tliey give birth to rivers that set out on their journeys beneath the sun without any visible period of childhood thus the issues from a large lake like spring in valley and about two thirds of the volume of the river forth suddenly from the face of a bluff in a roaring spring seventy five yards wide these spring rivers of the north are of course shorter than those of the south whose extend up to the tops of the mountains fall river an important of the or upper is only about ten miles long and is all falls and springs from its head to its with the springs issue from the rocks at one end of it a snowy fall a hundred and eighty feet high at the other and a rush of crystal sing and dance between of course such streams are but little affected by the weather sheltered the mountains of from their flow is nearly as full in the autumn as in the time of general spring floods while those of the high to less than the part of their prime in autumn to a series of silent pools among the rocks and of their channels connected by feeble creeping threads of water like the sentences of a tired writer connected by a of and strange to say the greatest floods occur in winter when one would suppose all the wild waters would be muffled and chained in frost and snow the same long all day storms of the so called rainy season in that give rain to the give dry frosty snow to the mountains but at rare intervals warm rains and winds the mountains and push back the snow line from feet to or even higher and then come the big floods i was usually driven down out of the high about the end of november but the winter of and was so warm and calm that i was tempted to seek general views of the and of the basin of feather river in january and i had just completed a hasty survey of the region and made my way down to winter quarters when one of the flood storms that i ever saw broke on the mountains i was then in the edge of the main forest belt at a small foot hill town called on the divide between the w of the feather and rivers the cause of this notable flood was simply a sudden and fall of warm wind and rain on the the floods of these rivers at a time when they contained a considerable quantity of snow the rain was so heavy and long sustained that it was of itself sufficient to make a good wild flood while the snow which the warm wind and rain melted on the upper and middle regions of the was sufficient to make another flood equal to that of the rain now these two distinct hai of flood waters were gathered simultaneously and poured out on the plain in one magnificent the of the and feather like many others of the are admirably adapted to the growth of floods of this kind their many far and wide extensive and the are inclined while the trunks are comparatively level the flood storm was hi progress the at ranged between and and when warm wind and warm rain fall simultaneously on snow contained in like these both the rain and that portion of the snow which the rain and wind melt are at first up and held back until the combined mass becomes which at length suddenly slips and all together to the trunk channel and since the deeper the stream the faster it flows the portion of the current above the slower foot hill portion below it and all sweeping forward together with a high front on the open plain with a violence and suddenness that at first seem wholly unaccountable the of the lower portion of this particular flood was somewhat by the mountains of gravel in the river channels and by which gave way after having at first restrained and held back the waters these conditions did not however greatly influence the general result the main effect having been caused by the rare combination of flood indicate above it is a pity that but few people meet and enjoy storms so noble as this in their homes in the mountains for spending themselves in the open of the plains they are likely to be remembered more by the bridges and houses they carry away than by their 