402 Transactions of the 



another, long since cut out, in the hills back of Oakland. South of San 

 Francisco, in Santa Cruz County, there is a forest of considerable 

 extent; south of that the redwood does not flourish. To give the 

 render some idea of the lumber resources north of us we quote from an 

 intelligent correspondent of the Humboldt Times: 



" It is safe to say that Eel River has at least one hundred thousand 

 acres of as good redwood timber as the world has produced. From 

 careful estimates, and conversation with those most thoroughly 

 acquainted with that locality, I fear no contradiction when I say that 

 an average of eight hundred thousand feet to the acre can be cut from 

 these lands. When a person stops a moment, and tries to comprehend 

 the magnitude of these figures, he is lost in a world of calculation. 

 Here we have one hundred thousand feet to the acre, giving in the 

 aggregate eighty billion feet on the tract. Now, it would take one 

 sawmill, with a cutting capacity of forty thousand feut per day, six 

 thousand three hundred and eighty-nine years to exhaust the supply, 

 or it would take twenty mills of like capacity over three hundred and 

 nineteen years to effect the same result, and so on down. The cutting 

 capacity of all the mills on Humboldt Bay is, I believe, forty million feet 

 per year. At this rate it would take them two thousand years to 

 exhaust the Eel River timber belt. On Van Dusen Creek, fifteen thou- 

 sand acres, which will cut six hundred thousand feet to the acre. On 

 Salmon Creek twenty thousand, which will average eight hundred thou- 

 sand; on Elk River thirty-five thousand, with six hundred thousand to 

 the acre; on Mad River and Century .Creek, one hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand acres, nine hundred thousand feet; from Little River to the 

 Lagoon, two hundred and fifty thousand acres, one hundred thousand 

 feet to the acre; Eureka, Ryan's Slough, Jacoby Creek, and the forests, 

 one hundred and five thousand acres, containing two hundred thousand 

 feet to the acre; adding the amounts together gives a total of four hun- 

 dred and forty-seven billion feet. Using the same illustration as pre- 

 viously named to show what these figures mean, namely: that the 

 capacity of the present mills on Humboldt Bay is forty millions of feet 

 per year, it will require eleven thousand seven hundred and forty-five 

 years, at the present rate of consumption, to exhaust the redwoods of 

 Humboldt County." 



This timber belt extends in one grand unbroken forest from Hum- 

 boldt through Mendocino County, and thirty-five miles into Sonoma. 

 Of the Sonoma timber we now propose to speak — a description of the 

 county without the redwoods and its fellows of the forest, the laurel 

 and the oak, would be incomplete. Entering the county on the north, in 

 Salt Point Township, it is estimated that there is twenty thousand acres 

 of timber, a large part of which will cut half a million feet to the acre. 

 This section extends from the north county line along the coast, and 

 back of it for some miles into the hills. In this section there are five 

 steam sawmills: first, the Gualalla mill, lying across the boundary, in 

 Mendocino, but the timber is mostly in this county. Capacity of mill, 

 twenty-five thousand feet a day. Fifteen miles below, at Fisherman's 

 Bay, is the Piatt mill, with a capacity of twenty thousand feet a day; 

 in the same place is the Clipper steam mill, with a capacity for cutting 

 twenty-five thousand feet u day. Four miles below Helmke's mill is 

 situated, with a cutting capacity of sixteen thousand feet a day. Ten 

 miles below, at Timber Cove, Miller's mill has a capacity of eighteen 



