CHAPTER IX 



THE DOUGLAS SQUIKREL 



(Sciurus Douglasii) 



THE Douglas Squirrel is by far the most interest 

 ing and influential of the California sciuridse, 

 surpassing every other species in force of character, 

 numbers, and extent of range, and in the amount of 

 influence he brings to bear upon the health and 

 distribution of the vast forests he inhabits. 



Go where you will throughout the noble woods 

 of the Sierra Nevada, among the giant pines and 

 spruces of the lower zones, up through the towering 

 Silver Firs to the storm-bent thickets of the sum 

 mit peaks, you everywhere find this little squirrel 

 the master-existence. Though only a few inches 

 long, so intense is his fiery vigor and restlessness, 

 he stirs every grove with wild life, and makes him 

 self more important than even the huge bears that 

 shuffle through the tangled underbrush beneath 

 him. Every wind is fretted by his voice, almost 

 every bole and branch feels the sting of his sharp 

 feet. How much the growth of the trees is stimu 

 lated by this means it is not easy to learn, but his 

 action in manipulating their seeds is more appre 

 ciable. Nature has made him master forester and 

 committed most of her coniferous crops to his 



