United States or South Korea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Larches seem to thrive best at about 5,000-6,000 feet, but may be seen almost as high as the top of the Bernina Pass on the south side facing Italy. The cembra pine, like a great cedar, is the finest tree in the Alps and does best at 6,000 feet to 7,000 feet. It is also called the Arolla pine, because of the forests near that place.
In the Upper Engadine almost all the forests are of cembra and there is one splendid old tree known as the "Giant Tree" near upper tree level on Muottas Celerina. Another group of veterans grows just below the Little Scheidegg on the Grindelwald side. Many of these trees are said to be 600 or 700 years old and their wood is much used for panelling in Graubünden.
The chamois are driven down into the woods in search of the lichen which hangs like a beard from the branches of the cembra trees. On Muottas Celerina this winter we saw four chamois below us in the wood.
At 3 p.m. on the 4th of November our troops had reached Sluderno in the Val Venosta, the Pass of Mendola and the Defile of Salomo in the Val d'Adige, Cembra in the Val d'Avisio, Levico in the Val Sugana, Fiera di Primiero, Pontebba, Plezzo, Tolmino, Gorizia, Cervignano, Aquileia and Grado." Some of these names filled me with memories of a year, and more than a year, ago.
Among the cembra trees in the Engadine the snow may be sprinkled with the nuts out of the cones. They are delicious eating, being very like the Italian stone pine nut, or pinelli, and they attract the squirrels as much as they do the nutcracker bird. Martens and pole cats leave distinct footmarks.
Then comes the descent, with its forests of larch and cembra, golden and dark green upon a ground of grey, and in front the serried shafts of the Bernina, and here and there a glimpse of emerald lake at turnings of the road. Autumn is the season for this landscape.
Then comes the descent, with its forests of larch and cembra, golden and dark green upon a ground of grey, and in front the serried shafts of the Bernina, and here and there a glimpse of emerald lake at turnings of the road. Autumn is the season for this landscape.
Word Of The Day