STEEP TRAILS 



hide them wholly, or to cover the bright mossy 

 carpet that is spread beneath all the dense parts 

 of the woods. 



The other species is also very picturesque 

 and at the same time very large, the largest 

 tree of its kind that I have ever seen anywhere. 

 Not even in the great maple woods of Canada 

 have I seen trees either as large or with so 

 much striking, picturesque character. It is 

 widely distributed throughout western Wash 

 ington, but is never found scattered among 

 the conifers in the dense woods. It keeps to 

 gether mostly in magnificent groves by itself 

 on the damp levels along the banks of streams 

 or lakes where the ground is subject to over 

 flow. In such situations it attains a height 

 of seventy-five to a hundred feet and a diam 

 eter of four to eight feet. The trunk sends 

 out large limbs toward its neighbors, laden 

 with long drooping mosses beneath and rows 

 of ferns on their upper surfaces, thus making 

 a grand series of richly ornamented interlacing 

 arches, with the leaves laid thick overhead, 

 rendering the underwood spaces delightfully 

 cool and open. Never have I seen a finer for 

 est ceiling or a more picturesque one, while 

 the floor, covered with tall ferns and rubus and 

 thrown into hillocks by the bulging roots, 

 matches it well. The largest of these maple 



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