340 APPENDIX VIII 



sufficiently well polished to be able to determine with accuracy the number 

 of annual layers. One tree 14 feet in diameter, counting from the centre, 

 gave 167 rings or layers to within four and three-fourths of an inch of the 

 outside, where they became so thin that they could no longer be exactly 

 ascertained ; although with sufficient accuracy upon which to ground a 

 moderate calculation that fifty years added only nine and a quarter inches 

 to the diameter of the trunk. 



This is a common tree from Cape Blanco, situated in 43, to the Straits 

 of Juan de Fuca in 49 North Latitude, abounding in all the mountainous 

 parts of the coast, preferring light, dry, thin, or gravelly soils, on a sub- 

 stratum of sand and clay or on rocky places. A few straggling trees are 

 seen at Cape Mendocino in 40 which may be regarded as its most southern 

 range, and likely it will extend much farther north than the habitat above 

 given. 



The mountains of the Grand Rapids of the Columbia, situated in 

 Lat. 46, are clothed to the top, some peaks of which exceed 5000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. On the Blue Mountains of the interior it 

 is also found, and clothes also the subalpine range or base of Mount Hood, 

 Mount St. Helens, Mount Baker, and Mount Vancouver as well as the 

 western base of the Rocky Mountains in 52 7' 9" N. Lat., 115 N. Long., 

 where it maintains a place, and arrives at a considerable size at an altitude 

 of 9000 feet above the level of the sea, 1000 from the verge of perpetual 

 snow. 



It is not a little surprising the vast change of climate and of soil ex- 

 perienced between the western and eastern base of the last-mentioned 

 ridge in the same parallel of latitude, and is beautifully exemplified 

 by the growth of the present tree as well as others of the same tribe. On 

 the west side it is enormously large, on the east a low scrubby tree, and 

 without the recesses of the mountains on the same side it ceases to exist . 



Being an inhabitant of a country nearly in the same parallel ot Lati- 

 tude with Great Britain, where the winter (even judging from the im- 

 mense covering afforded it by Nature in its bark) is more severe, gives 

 every reason to hope that it is in every respect well calculated to endure, 

 our climate and that it will prove a'beautiful acquisition to English Sylva 

 if not an important addition to the number of useful timbers. 



The wood may be found very useful for a variety of domestic purposes : 

 the young slender ones exceedingly well adapted for making ladders 

 and scaffold poles, not being liable to cast ; the larger timber for more im- 

 portant purposes ; while at the same time the rosin may be found deserving 

 attention. 



In the memorable journey of Lewis and Clarke (p. 455), in their interest- 

 ing account of the timber of that country, we find that they " measured 

 some 42 feet in circumference, at a point beyond the reach of an ordinary 

 man. This trunk for the distance of two hundred feet was destitute of 

 limbs ; the tree was perfectly sound, and, at a moderate calculation, its 

 size may be estimated at three hundred feet." I am most wilh'ng to 

 bear testimony to the correctness of their statements as respects the 

 girth of the timber, but after a two years' residence, during which time 



