TREES OF WESTERN AMERICA. I23 



the lake, and also to two small lakes a thousand feet higher 

 up than the hotel, where we left the timber-line behind, and 

 found Lyall's larch growing pure. The trees of this region 

 have their branches very short from base to top, owing to the 

 immense weight of snow and ice which covers them for so 

 much of the year. 



I shall say little of our journey from the Rockies, across the 

 Selkirks and Coast Mountains, to the Fraser River Caiion, 

 Suffice to say that four miles west of Laggan the line crosses 

 the continental divide through the Kicking-horse Pass, and 

 almost at once the timber begins to grow western in its character. 

 Douglas fir and Thuja gigantea are seen for the first time as we drop 

 down into the valley of the Upper Columbia River. Then when 

 we have crossed the river and begin to climb up the precipitous 

 Beaver Canon of the Selkirks, we see splendid Tsuga Albertiana, 

 Pinus monticola, Picea Engelmanni and Pinus contorta giving 

 way gradually to Thuja gigantea and Douglas The day's run 

 from Laggan to Revelstoke is through as splendid mountain 

 scenery as exists anywhere ; doubtless many here have made that 

 journey, and stayed in the delightful hotels provided by the C.P.R. 



In the lower Fraser River valley grows that finest of all 

 birches — Betula nccidentalis, — a tree practically unknown here, 

 though there is no reason why it should not thrive in our 

 climate, so like its own of British Columbia. 



Our objective point was Tacoma, in the State of Washington, 

 on Puget Sound. In the valleys of Northern Washington 

 through which our line — the Northern Pacific — ran, we saw 

 Douglas and Thuja gigantea growing as only they do grow on 

 the mild sea-board of the North Pacific. Terrible burnt areas 

 too we passed, where not a seedling was to be seen, and only 

 bracken and willow-herb springing up among the blackened 

 stumps. Happily this destruction by fire has been reduced 

 about 85 per cent, during the past season, owing to the 

 excellent arrangements, regulations, and active supervision of 

 the officers of the United States Timber Reservations. We 

 saw large specimens of the greatest of American maples {Acer 

 macrophyllum) growing among the tangles of the vine maple 

 {Acer circinnatum) in all the river bottoms. Here and there 

 was an occasional Picea Menziesii — it never occurs over thirty 

 miles from the sea, and we were now well within that distance 

 of Puget Sound. 



