462 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forest ranger also uses it as a station, and since tin- of carnation cream. 'rhe_\- v\ere fairly good, but ex- 

 owner was off to the mines, the ranger told us where travagant for the woods. We cooked our last eggs, 

 to find the key and to hel]) ourselves to anything we that is what was left in the shells, for I had dropi)e<l 

 needed in food and pay when we came hack. the liuckci once. W lun .Mr. Lowry is gone his cats 



We were in bv three. We had loitered by the wa\ . keei> hoiisc. Tiiere is a cat hole in the door. I love 

 lounged by the 

 river, cooked our 

 dinner. ]i i c k e d 

 berries, measured 

 trees and esti- 

 mated their board 

 feet in our heads. 

 We had neither 

 paper, pencil nor 

 tape measure with 

 us and we wanted 

 to estimate the 

 lumber in one of 

 the large trees 

 among the cedars. 

 I have tested and 

 know that I can 

 depend upon my 

 nose to measure a 

 yard. So, by re- 

 laying our two 

 shawl straps, on 

 which we carried 

 the field glasses 

 and marking sta- 

 tions we succeed- 

 ed in measuring 

 the circumference 

 breast high. I 

 have been estimat- 



.\IT, HAKER FROM HELIOTROI'E RIDGE 



The snciw wall that appears to be a!)out three feet high is more than one hundred and lifty 

 feet high. A wonderful view of the mountain is to he had from the Heliotrope trail. 



ing the height of the lowest branches of our firs and 

 cedars for ten years so felt safe in saying it was one 

 hundred feet to the lowest liranches. While we 

 stretched ourselves on the moss by the river, with 

 these two dimensions, our arithmetic and forestry 

 formulae, we mentall}' di<l our reckoning, proving oiii" 

 mental computations by comparing results. We found 

 the tree to be a little over ten feet in diameter breast the forest. Trails, telephones and lookout stations are 



a cat and was <le- 

 lighted to see 

 them at first, but 

 between the heat 

 ol the little room 

 — we c o u 1 d n't 

 lea\e the door 

 o]icn because of 

 the mosquitoes 

 and the racket of 

 ihe cats, we slejit 

 so little that we 

 made a late start 

 in the morning. 

 \\ hen we came 

 back 1 closed the 

 cat hole and the 

 cats slept in the 

 open for once in 

 ilieir li\es. 



I have lived for 

 weeks in the 

 woods fourteen 

 miles from a road, 

 and the freedom 

 f r o m noises of 

 civilization, — the 

 silence of the for- 

 est broken only 

 by the musical 

 sound of rippling waler or falling twigs, is very fa- 

 miliar and fascinating. Into this the ring of a tele- 

 phone liell was as st.'irtling as a team of horses. Rut 

 it was a very friendU' sound when we heard the voice 

 of Forest Ranger McCiuire at Glacier asking how- we 

 hail inadi' the tri]i. The installation of the telej^hone 

 is a long stej) in foresti"}' towards closer protection ol 



high and to contain o\'er fi.5,0()() board feet of lumber. 

 A real school-ma'am-y amusement, it occurred to us 

 to reckon how many homes could be built out of the 

 tree, but we lacked data and it liegan to seem like 

 work. However, I know that from such trees often 

 only half of one cutting of shakes at the butt is needeil 

 to build a woodman's cabin. 



The cabin at Herman is decidedly superior to the 

 ordinary bachelor's cabin in the woods, and only a 

 woods tramper knows how to a])preciate these little 

 homes in the woods. From the front porch we looked 

 over the Nooksack river to the mountains. Rutli 

 mmintain, jagged, precipitous and yet snow covered. 

 Hushed in the light of the setting sun, was the center 

 of the picture. T made hot biscuits for supper and 

 since I could find neither lard nor bacon I made them 



an absolute necessit}' in the control of fires. 



After l)reakfast we started for Twin Lakes, six 

 and one-half miles farther on and 3,000 feet farther up. 

 It is the way to many gold mines and the forestry trail 

 building crew- of seven men were just comjileting a 

 trail to the Lakes. They are far up among the peaks, 

 two nicmntain lakt's of exc|uisite blue shading from 

 indigo to emerald, floating tiny ice-bergs, in places 

 bordered by banks of icy snow, surrounded by slopes 

 of snow and cluniiis of ali)ine flowers and trees and by 

 huge buttes that framed the distant peaks of Red 

 mountain and a magnificient view of Koma Kulshan. 

 I In- w.iliT Irom oiu' lake empties into the other li\ 

 little resounding falls and from this lake the water 

 cascades down the mountain sides as Swam]i creek. 

 Even creeks ha\e an iiidividualitv. This one is inter- 



