R.J. Ratt 1956 42 Journal east side Spruce Mtn., 8400 ft, Elko Co., Nevada June 24 Wells and turned south on US 93 for about 35 miles. Then we turned east on a dirt road leading onto Spruce Mtn. This area is included on the "Spruce Mountain" topographic quadrangle issued in 1953 by the U.S. G.S. We drove up through a belt of Pinon-Juniper forest (fairly dense) and then through sagebrush and mountain mahogany to the top of a ridge just north of the main high ridge where a road turns off to the south and the top of the mountain (this road has just been built by a contractor constructing a television microwave relay station atop the mountain). This open saddle is at about 8500 feet elevation and contains several mines. It is open, grass, with low sage. The west face of the mountain from this saddle southward is covered by conifers, Bristlecone Pine and Limber Pine from about 7000 feet upward and White Fir between 6000 and 7000 feet. We drove over this saddle and down about 1/2 mile (100 feet in elevation) to the Black Forest Mine which is abandoned and in an old building of which we are camped. On this portion of the east slope there is timber including all three of the above conifers. On the north side of the draw we are camped on, however, the conifers are replaced by open sagebrush and mountain mahogany. The area is very dry and we have not seen any real stream. We are obtaining water from holes dug to catch a trickle coming down from a snowbank just under the ridgtop.