TREES OF WESTERN AMERICA. I 25 



of this range the Douglas fir must average about 250 feet, and 

 the Tsuga Uttle short of it. I stepped the trees in this photograph, 

 and found they measured 210 feet before the first branch was 

 reached. A guide whom I had taken with me when last in 

 these mountains told us that a party of prospectors had cut a 

 trail up the South Fork of the Skokomish River (the North 

 Fork was the river flowing out of Lake Cushman, up which 

 we had come). We determined to follow this trail for a few 

 days' fishing and exploring. We were well repaid. The first day 

 out, with four horses and our two men, we reached the river, 

 and camped in a clump of aspen poplars {Populus tremuloides), 

 sleeping on beds of Thuja gigantea boughs. Most of our 

 day's march was through dense Alberita?ia spruce, and we, 

 noticed how wonderfully this tree seeds itself, more especially 

 on the soft bark of a rotten fallen tree-trunk. Attempts at 

 photographing it, however, were not very successful. We found 

 Ptniis monticola growing on the ridge between the North Fork 

 and the South Fork. Next day we continued our way, and 

 made our camp for three days on a little plateau in a bend 

 of the river in a grove of Abies gratidis, our tent shaded by 

 the branches of Rhanmus purshiana — the tree from which the 

 cascara sagrada bark is got It was covered with ripe black 

 fruit, of which I dried a portion, and am sowing it in the hope 

 of establishing the tree here. The Rainbow trout fishing was 

 too excellent to be neglected, even for trees, as I think you 

 will agree when I tell you that in my last four hours fishing on 

 that stream I caught 53 trout, weighing just 60 lbs. My wife 

 landed a 4^ pounder off her second cast. To picture this 

 country, you must realise that the whole land is dense forest, 

 with open spaces nowhere except where the peaks of the hills 

 struggle through in rocky pinnacles. Our trail was for the 

 most part along the river-bed, which we crossed and re-crossed 

 countless times. As in all the densely wooded regions of the 

 North-West, one sees few birds and beasts. An occasional black- 

 tailed deer, a still more occasional black bear, and a frequent 

 mink in the river bottoms, were all we saw. Of birds there 

 are a few small warblers, several woodpeckers, and a beautiful 

 great grey kingfisher, this last to be seen everywhere. 



We returned to Tacoma, and my next expedition was to the 

 Nisqually Glacier, which flows down the south-west side of the 

 great Mount Tacoma — 15,000 feet. The United States Govern- 



