STEEP TRAILS 



bling wood and mossy ancient fragments as 

 are the growing trees from very old ones. Then, 

 perchance, we come upon a section farther 

 up the slopes towards the mountains that has 

 no trees more than fifty years old, or even 

 fifteen or twenty years old. These last show 

 plainly enough that they have been devas 

 tated by fire, as the black, melancholy monu 

 ments rising here and there above the young 

 growth bear witness. Then, with this fiery, 

 suggestive testimony, on examining those sec 

 tions whose trees are a hundred years old or 

 two hundred, we find the same fire-records, 

 though heavily veiled with mosses and lichens, 

 showing that a century or two ago the forests 

 that stood there had been swept away in some 

 tremendous fire at a time when rare condi 

 tions of drouth made their burning possible. 

 Then, the bare ground sprinkled with the 

 winged seeds from the edges of the burned 

 district, a new forest sprang up, nearly every 

 tree starting at the same time or within a few 

 years, thus producing the uniformity of size 

 we find in such places; while, on the other hand, 

 in those sections of ancient aspect containing 

 very old trees both standing and fallen, we 

 find no traces of fire, nor from the extreme 

 dampness of the ground can we see any possi 

 bility of fire ever running there. 



238 



