FOREST TREES. 429 



valleys, aud in which these streams take their rise, are timbered more or 

 less heavily with the several varieties of firs and pines, the loftier 

 ranges, say from six thousand to eight thousand feet in altitude, are 

 clothed with a thick growth of tall black pines, which are from three to 

 ten inches in diameter, of from thirty to fifty feet in height, while the 

 lower ranges and spurs have firs and pines from saplings up to six and 

 nine feet in diameter, the tallest trees being probably" from one hundred 

 to two hundred feet in height. Geological formation has something to 

 do with the growth and variety of timber, the granitic soils being ap- 

 parently preferred by the pines, while the firs are the most abundant on 

 the limestones aud old red sandstones. Upon neariug the limits of 

 vegetation upon the many peaks whose summits are seldom destitute of 

 snow, the stunted pine appears to be the only tree which struggles there 

 to maintain its foothold. 



West of the Bitter Eoot Eiver, which washes the eastern base of the 

 formidable range of mountains called in one locality the Bitter Eoot and 

 in another the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, the character of the country 

 changes. The streams which meander in sinuous courses through the 

 caQons, gorges, defiles, and ravines of this region, which has a width of 

 from seventy to one hundred and forty miles, are confined to narrow beds 

 between mountain spurs, and the entire face of the country is covered 

 with a forest which has forbidden, until lately, even the hardy and ad- 

 venturous miner from exploring its fastnesses, and determining the 

 heads and courses of its draining streams. After leaving the western 

 base of this mountain-bed we enter the great plain of the Columbia, 

 where no trees are seen, except along the water-courses, as on the eastern 

 side of the mountains, over a vast plain which presents to the eye the 

 appearance of a rolling ocean tossed by contending billows. Crossing 

 this plain, up nearly to the summits of the Cascade Mountains, a dis- 

 tance of about one hundred and fifty miles, we again enter into the 

 timber, which stretches thence in an almost unbroken forest to the Pacific, 

 where the trees of pines and firs assume gigantic proportions, and have 

 given to WavShington Territory the reputation of affording the best spar 

 and ship timber in the United States, if not in the world. To the north, 

 when you enter into the region of the Upper Columbia aud its tributa- 

 ries, which rise in the damp lake country of the BritivSh possessions, as far 

 as my experience goes, the fiftieth parallel, the country yields as fine a 

 growth of timber as in the mountain regions to the south of it, similar 

 in character, but wider in its extent. This country is devoid of any 

 extensive iirairies, and is but si)arsely inhabited, and has been imx)er- 

 fectly explored. 



Having thus given the outlines of the distribution of the trees over 

 the tract set forth, I would suggest the theory which presents itself to 

 my observation, as accounting for the treeless valleys, prairies, aud i^laius 

 which form so large a part of our great West. Wlien I first entered that 

 country, nearly eleven years ago, I was much struck by the absence of 



