1886.] THE REDWOODS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 689 



watch, from some high place, its dispersion by the sun as it rolls 

 away from the ridges and valleys, disclosing the trees or pastures of 

 some well-known spot, and again covering them up to open more and 

 more widely at some otlier i)lace, till at length through the thinning 

 mist the rivers begin to sparkle in the sunlight far below like 

 silver threads, and over all reigns tlie Californian sky of cloudless 

 blue. 



Within the forest the trees grow from G to 30 feet apart, up iu 

 50 feet in girth, and np to 300 feet in height; the shaft being 

 clear of its short twisted branches and cedar-like foliage for more 

 than half-way up, and the bark of a rusty cinnamon colour. Over 

 2000 annual rings have been counted in one 45 feet in girth. 

 Plenty seedlings are to be found, sprung from its small - sizetl 

 cones, but these will not bear transplanting from their native clime, 

 and the slightest frost will kill them. 



Take a ride in a Humboldt forest. — How refreshing is its shelter 

 from the scorching sun, — Yet it is not gloomy. — Here are several 

 acres of ground covered with rhododendron in blossom ; up the 

 trees creeps the poison oak with its delicate leaves, green, pink, and 

 crimson. Here is also the Oregon grape vine, the thimbleberry, 

 huge ferns, and a tangled growth of brushwood, all lightened up by 

 long yellow splinters from above. Occasionally the "trail" will run 

 through a little opening, sparsely covered with grass, where the eye, 

 having room, naturally follows the course of the glancing sunlit 

 grey and cinnamon coloured giants from base to tip in a vain 

 endeavour to take in their size, and from whence the blue sky above 

 may be seen as from the bottom of a well. Nowhere is sunlight more 

 beautiful, and to the traveller who may have begun his journey 

 before the wetting fog had cleared away, nowhere more cheering ; 

 now he can see and avoid stumps, roots, and quagmires ; now he 

 leaves off shivering, and by and by ties his coat to the saddle, and 

 it may be takes to singing and shouting to relieve the tiresome 

 monotony of the forest trail. Some, however, cannot sing or shout 

 amid such scenes. It is a land of silence. — Halt a moment. — Not 

 a sound of bird, of beast, or of wind disturbs the forest ; even the 

 few small streams steal quietly on their way in their deep cut 

 channels. — Go for mile after mile amongst trees packed as closely 

 it would seem as trees can stand, and where at places a deep gloomy 

 shade prevails. Here are old fallen trunks lying rotting, piled one upon 

 another, — there stands a rugged monster with a huge cavern burned 

 deep into its base ; a cave which could hold a dozen horses, or another 

 still stands, blackened and serrated to a hundred feet from the ground 

 by the fires of centuries past. The ear is strained to catch the "thud" 

 of an axe or the shouts of the drivers of an ox team hauling logs, yet 



