IN CALIFORNIA 17 



were mammoth of their kind, 4 and to cnt such 

 down, was of course equally out of the question. 

 The alternative was a method practised at the pres- 

 ent day by some seekers after these pine-seeds 

 shooting them off with a rifle. In this way, Doug- 

 las managed to clip off three cones, when a party 

 of armed Indians in war-paint appeared upon the 

 scene, attracted by the reports of the gun. 



"To save myself by flight was impossible/' 

 writes Douglas, "so without hesitation, I stepped 

 back about five paces, cocked my gun, drew one of 

 the pistols out of my belt and showed myself de- 

 termined to fight for my life. . . . Thus we stood, 

 looking at one another without making any move- 

 ment or uttering a word, for perhaps ten minutes, 

 when one at last who seemed to be the leader, gave 

 a sign that they wished for some tobacco. This I 

 signified that they should have if they found a 

 quantity of cones. They went off immediately in 

 search of them, and no sooner were they all out of 



4 The scene was southwestern Oregon, some 50 miles north of the 

 California line, where the sugar pine has reached a remarkable de- 

 velopment. Douglas records one as 57 feet in circumference at 3 

 feet above the ground. "There were giants in those days," and it is 

 doubtful if any sugar pines so large have escaped the lumberman and 

 the latter day lightning. John Muir gives the dimensions of full- 

 grown specimens as commonly about 220 feet high, and from 6 to 8 

 feet through near the ground. Occasionally individuals of twice that 

 thickness may be encountered. 



