i899 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 13 



altogether about 3000 feet. Nothing can exceed the 

 wild beauty of the scenery. In most places rocky, and 

 often precipitous, cliffs press right over the Creek ; but 

 here and there, as you ascend, you come across level 

 plateaux formed by deposits of gravel of unknown thick- 

 ness. 



Wherever they can find foothold, and where they have 

 not been destroyed by fires, groves of magnificent pines 

 raise their tall crests hundreds of feet towards the sky, 

 clothing the mountain sides almost up to the snow line. 

 Wherever there is water, ferns, hlies, a very curious plant, 

 Darlingtonia californica, and many varied forms of 

 vegetable life flourish luxuriantly. In the lower parts of 

 the valley there is a fairly dense undergrowth of 

 Manzaneta, of tallow shrub, and several varieties of oak : 

 at the higher elevations this is almost replaced by Azalea. 

 Here and there on either side small Canons enter the 

 gorge, each one seemingly more wild and lovely than its 

 predecessor. As the Divide is approached, the valley 

 widens out, and the forests become less dense. 



There are not many varieties of Pine in the valley. 

 Among them are the Sugar Pine, Pinus lanibertiana\ the 

 Bull Pine, Pimis ponderosa ; the Douglas Spruce, Pseu- 

 dostiga taxi foil a ; and a variety of Cedar, Tlmja plicata. 

 These trees grow to an enormous size. I measured 

 many which had a girth of from 25 feet to 30 feet at 

 6 feet from the ground ; up to that height there is a good 

 big bole, but after that, up to 60 feet or 70 feet, the taper- 

 ing is but slight, and they are usually straight as an arrow. 

 Several that I measured, lying on the ground blown down 

 by tempests, were 200 feet and over in length ; and I 

 must have seen thousands of such trees during my visit. 

 Countless numbers are annually destroyed by fires which 

 ravage the forests disastrously. The trees are generally 

 covered, more or less, with a lichen of a lovely pale 



