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(Download pdf) How To Read The Wilderness An Illustrated Guide To North American Flora And Fauna Nature Study Guild full chapter pdf docx
(Download pdf) How To Read The Wilderness An Illustrated Guide To North American Flora And Fauna Nature Study Guild full chapter pdf docx
(Download pdf) How To Read The Wilderness An Illustrated Guide To North American Flora And Fauna Nature Study Guild full chapter pdf docx
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HOW TO READ
THE WILDERNESS
BY THE NATURE STUDY GUILD
HOW
TO
READ
THE
WILDERNESS
A N I L LU ST R AT E D G U I D E TO T H E
N AT U R A L WO N D E R S O F N O RT H A M E R I C A
Copyright © 2022 by Keen Communications, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without written permission from the publisher.
TREES
7
THE OCEAN
281
Sources | 390
PA R T 1
TREES
Trees of the
Pacific Coast
here are different areas where you’re likely to find certain
types of trees growing:
ON THE SEACOAST
These are often trees that grow only on windy slopes facing
the sea, usually in sandy soil.
IN BURNED AREAS
Unless fire returns, these trees will eventually be replaced by
more shade-tolerant species.
9
how to re ad the wilderness
DECIDUOUS TREES
These are leafless in winter
or the dry season.
SHRUBBY TREES
These are trees that often
grow as shrubs and become
trees only on sheltered slopes
and canyons.
10
Average
trees
Rainfall
|
(inches per year)
t h e pac i f i c coa s t
over 128 in.
(3.25 m)
64 to 128 in.
(1.6 to
3.25 m)
32 to 64 in.
(80 cm to 1.6 m)
16 to 32 in.
(40 to 80 cm)
11
The Pacific coast climate is drier toward the south and in the low-
how to re ad the wilderness
In the MIXED-EVERGREEN
FOREST of the coast ranges,
there are no big redwoods
or hemlocks. Small Douglas
firs dominate. Leaves here
are often thick, leathery, and
evergreen. This slows evapo-
ration of moisture during dry
summers and takes advan-
tage of mild, wet winters.
12
Average
trees
Growing Season
|
(frost-free days)
t h e pac i f i c coa s t
This map shows why
coast-range forests differ
from higher-altitude forests
of the Sierra Nevada and
Cascades. (see next page)
over
300 days
240 to 300
180 to 240
120 to 180
60 to 120
under 60 days
13
Climbing into high mountains is like going north
how to re ad the wilderness
ALPINE ZONE
(TREELESS)
DOUGL AS -FIR ,
CEDAR , HEMLOCK
FOREST
14
trees
|
t h e pac i f i c coa s t
The dry lower elevations of the
MIXED CONIFER FOREST are often
open pine woods (with chaparral).
In higher elevations, more rainfall
supports more kinds of trees, larger
and closer together.
Most adult trees here have
thick, corky trunk bark and can sur-
vive small ground fires. Accumula-
tions of unburned undergrowth and
fallen wood may support larger,
killing fires. Hillside trees may be
fire-hollowed on the uphill side
where logs roll against trunks and
later burn.
15
how to re ad the wilderness
16
trees
|
t h e pac i f i c coa s t
To survive in the SUBALPINE
ZONE , trees must mature
their new growth in a short,
unreliable summer where
you can make snowballs
in July and expect frost in
late August.
The higher you go, the
smaller the trees. Near the
upper limit of this zone, trees
can survive only where snow-
drift seals out the abrasive,
drying wind.
17
Identifying
how to re ad the wilderness
Oak Trees
If the first two are true but the leaf is not lobed,
go to
18
|
19
trees t h e pac i f i c coa s t
how to re ad the wilderness
20
|
21
trees t h e pac i f i c coa s t
how to re ad the wilderness
22
trees
If the leaves are convex on top and have tufts of
|
hair where the veins join on the undersides, it is
t h e pac i f i c coa s t
COAST LIVE OAK Quercus agrifolia
23
how to re ad the wilderness
Oak trees and their shrub relatives breed promiscuously. You’ll often
find hybrid forms with mixed traits of several species. Identifying
them is beyond this guide.
*Except at Joshua Tree National Park, where the usually shrubby Q. turbinella is treelike
24
|
25
trees t h e pac i f i c coa s t
Trees
of the
Southwestern
Desert
if the tree you are identifying grows among:
27
These symbols show how or where desert trees are likely to grow:
how to re ad the wilderness
28
Here are some ways trees survive in the desert.
trees
|
Trees have long roots SAGUARO MESQUITE
• small leaves
YUCCA
• poisonous sap
WESTERN SOAPBERRY
29
how to re ad the wilderness
Rainfall
Most of the rain in the desert falls in the cool higher altitudes of the
surrounding mountains. Lower altitudes are warmer, but the rainfall
there may dry up in midair. The high-rainfall areas on this map also
show where the high mountains are:
Average
Rainfall
over 16 in.
(40 cm)
Where the average yearly rainfall is under 16 inches (40 cm), it makes
a great difference to trees how much the amount of rain varies from
year to year and what season the rain falls—matters which depend on
seasonal winds from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
30
trees
Winter Rain
|
Weakened remnants of the winter storms that drench the California
SONORAN DESERT
Arizona Desert
Summer Rain
Monsoon winds can bring unstable, tropical air from the Gulf of
Mexico. The resulting thundershowers soak unevenly into the soil,
but they come at the best season for trees. Summer rains are most
reliable in the eastern end of the Sonoran Desert (the desert with
the most abundant trees). To the west, the rains thin out and may
skip a year. The trees are smaller and farther apart too.
31
Desert Soils
how to re ad the wilderness
Upper Bajada
Coarse, absorbent soil makes this the
best part of the desert slope for trees.
Lower Bajada
Here trees grow only in washes
where flash floods soak in.
Desert Mountain
Here trees grow wherever a
cool rock crevice holds water
within reach of roots.
32
trees
the finer soil particles farther downslope than the coarser sand and
|
the southwestern desert
gravel. So as you descend a bajada, the trees thin out because the soils
become finer, less porous, less able to absorb the quick rains that run
off and collect in the washes. Trees grow in the washes, especially
where a layer of windblown sand collects in the depressions and holds
moisture in the soil.
Bottomlands
Here permanent underground water may
be near enough to the surface to support a
riparian wood of large mesquites, cotton- Playa
woods, hackberries, walnuts, ashes, and— In the desert basin,
where the water surfaces—willows. water evaporates to
leave brine and salt—
no trees.
33
Identifying Cholla,
how to re ad the wilderness
34
trees
|
the southwestern desert
If the jointed branches are densely covered with straw
colored spines, the trunk bark is black, and the fruits dangle
in long clusters, it is JUMPING CHOLLA Opuntia fulgida
If the spines are dark, of uneven length, and the trunk bark
is lighter, it is STAGHORN CHOLLA Opuntia versicolor
35
how to re ad the wilderness
36
trees
If the leaves are clustered at the tip of a single
|
trunk (or at the tips of branches), and if the leaves
37
how to re ad the wilderness
38
trees
If the leaf has many whitish threads along its edge, and
|
flower clusters are 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 meters) long, it
39
Trees of
the Rocky
Mountains
Rocky Mountain Tree Distribution
Climate limits where trees can grow. The very things people
like about the Rocky Mountain climate—cool summers and
deep snow at high altitudes, year-round dry sunshine in the
low altitudes—are hard on trees. The Rockies have abundant
water and warmth, but not in the same places. Trees here
must adapt to extreme temperatures, intense sunlight, and
drying winds.
41
how to re ad the wilderness
SUBALPINE FIR
DOUGL AS FIR
PONDEROSA PINE
42
These are the five LIFE ZONES found at different altitudes in the Rocky
trees
Mountains. Some trees grow in several zones, but if you know what
|
zone you’re in you can usually tell what trees you’ll find.
t h e r o c k y m o u n ta i n s
Plains Zone
Upper Sonoran Zone—annual rainfall 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 cm)
Grasses, sagebrush, or dry shrubbery dominate this zone, the driest
in the Rocky Mountains. To survive here, trees must have roots that
reach moisture.
• Pinyons • Cottonwoods
• Gambel oak • Hackberries
• Junipers • Boxelder
• Mountain mahogany • Willows
43
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CHAPTER VII.
ARMY RATIONS: WHAT THEY WERE.—HOW
THEY WERE DISTRIBUTED.—HOW THEY WERE
COOKED.
The Mikado.
Now, as to the quality the case is not quite so clear, but still the
picture has been often overdrawn. There were, it is true, large
quantities of stale beef or salt horse—as the men were wont to call it
—served out, and also rusty, unwholesome pork; and I presume the
word “hardtack” suggests to the uninitiated a piece of petrified bread
honeycombed with bugs and maggots, so much has this article of
army diet been reviled by soldier and civilian. Indeed, it is a rare
occurrence for a soldier to allude to it, even at this late day, without
some reference to its hardness, the date of its manufacture, or its
propensity for travel. But in spite of these unwholesome rations,
whose existence no one calls in question, of which I have seen—I
must not say eaten—large quantities, I think the government did
well, under the circumstances, to furnish the soldiers with so good a
quality of food as they averaged to receive. Unwholesome rations
were not the rule, they were the exception, and it was not the fault of
the government that these were furnished, but very often the intent
of the rascally, thieving contractors who supplied them, for which
they received the price of good rations; or, perhaps, of the
inspectors, who were in league with the contractors, and who
therefore did not always do their duty. No language can be too
strong to express the contempt every patriotic man, woman, and
child must feel for such small-souled creatures, many of whom are
to-day rolling in the riches acquired in this way and other ways
equally disreputable and dishonorable.
I will now give a complete list of the rations served out to the rank
and file, as I remember them. They were salt pork, fresh beef, salt
beef, rarely ham or bacon, hard bread, soft bread, potatoes, an
occasional onion, flour, beans, split pease, rice, dried apples, dried
peaches, desiccated vegetables, coffee, tea, sugar, molasses,
vinegar, candles, soap, pepper, and salt.
It is scarcely necessary to state that these were not all served out
at one time. There was but one kind of meat served at once, and
this, to use a Hibernianism, was usually pork. When it was hard
bread, it wasn’t soft bread or flour, and when it was pease or beans it
wasn’t rice.
I will speak of the rations more in detail, beginning with the hard
bread, or, to use the name by which it was known in the Army of the
Potomac, Hardtack. What was hardtack? It was a plain flour-and-
water biscuit. Two which I have in my possession as mementos
measure three and one-eighth by two and seven-eighths inches, and
are nearly half an inch thick. Although these biscuits were furnished
to organizations by weight, they were dealt out to the men by
number, nine constituting a ration in some regiments, and ten in
others; but there were usually enough for those who wanted more,
as some men would not draw them. While hardtack was nutritious,
yet a hungry man could eat his ten in a short time and still be hungry.
When they were poor and fit objects for the soldiers’ wrath, it was
due to one of three conditions: First, they may have been so hard
that they could not be bitten; it then required a very strong blow of
the fist to break them. The cause of this hardness it would be difficult
for one not an expert to determine. This variety certainly well
deserved their name. They could not be soaked soft, but after a time
took on the elasticity of gutta-percha.
A HARD-TACK—FULL SIZE.
A BOX OF HARDTACK.
When General Lyon heard the men singing these stanzas in their
tents, he is said to have been moved by them to the extent of
ordering the cook to serve up corn-meal mush, for a change, when
the song received the following alteration:—
The name hardtack seems not to have been in general use among
the men in the Western armies.
But I now pass to consider the other bread ration—the loaf or soft
bread. Early in the war the ration of flour was served out to the men
uncooked; but as the eighteen ounces allowed by the government
more than met the needs of the troops, who at that time obtained
much of their living from outside sources (to be spoken of hereafter),
it was allowed, as they innocently supposed, to be sold for the
benefit of the Company Fund, already referred to. Some
organizations drew, on requisition, ovens, semi-cylindrical in form,
which were properly set in stone, and in these regimental cooks or
bakers baked bread for the regiment. But all of this was in the
tentative period of the war. As rapidly as the needs of the troops
pressed home to the government, they were met with such despatch
and efficiency as circumstances would permit. For a time, in 1861,
the vaults under the broad terrace on the western front of the Capitol
were converted into bakeries, where sixteen thousand loaves of
bread were baked daily. The chimneys from the ovens pierced the
terrace where now the freestone pavement joins the grassy slope,
and for months smoke poured out of these in dense black volumes.
The greater part of the loaves supplied to the Army of the Potomac
up to the summer of 1864 were baked in Washington, Alexandria,
and at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The ovens at the latter place had a
capacity of thirty thousand loaves a day. But even with all these
sources worked to their uttermost, brigade commissaries were
obliged to set up ovens near their respective depots, to eke out
enough bread to fill orders. These were erected on the sheltered
side of a hill or woods, then enclosed in a stockade, and the whole
covered with old canvas.
AN ARMY OVEN.
When the army reached the vicinity of Petersburg, the supply of
fresh loaves became a matter of greater difficulty and delay, which
Grant immediately obviated by ordering ovens built at City Point. A
large number of citizen bakers were employed to run them night and
day, and as a result one hundred and twenty-three thousand fresh
loaves were furnished the army daily from this single source; and so
closely did the delivery of these follow upon the manipulations of the
bakers that the soldiers quite frequently received them while yet
warm from the oven. Soft bread was always a very welcome change
from hard bread; yet, on the other hand, I think the soldiers tired
sooner of the former than of the latter. Men who had followed the sea
preferred the hard bread. Jeffersonville, in Southern Indiana, was the
headquarters from which bread was largely supplied to the Western
armies.
SOFT BREAD.