THE FORESTS OF OREGON 



bow, placed on his left arm a sleeve of raccoon skin 

 and stood on the defensive. Being quite sure that 

 conduct was prompted by fear and not by hostile 

 intentions, the poor fellow having probably never 

 seen such a being as myself before, I laid my gun 

 at my feet on the ground and waved my hand for 

 him to come to me, which he did slowly and with 

 great caution. I then made him place his bow and 

 quiver of arrows beside my gun, and striking a 

 light gave him a smoke out of my own pipe and 

 a present of a few beads. With my pencil I made 

 a rough sketch of the cone and pine tree which I 

 wanted to obtain and drew his attention to it, when 

 he instantly pointed with his hand to the hills 

 fifteen or twenty miles distant towards the south; 

 and when I expressed my intention of going thither, 

 cheerfully set about accompanying me. At midday 

 I reached my long-wished-for pines and lost no 

 time in examining them and endeavoring to collect 

 specimens and seeds. New and strange things sel- 

 dom fail to make strong impressions and are there- 

 fore frequently overrated; so that, lest I should 

 never see my friends in England to inform them 

 verbally of this most beautiful and immensely 

 grand tree, I shall here state the dimensions of the 

 largest I could find among several that had been 

 blown down by the wind. At three feet from the 

 ground its circumference is fifty-seven feet, nine 

 inches; at one hundred and thirty-four feet, seven- 

 teen feet five inches; the extreme length two hun- 

 dred and forty-five feet. ... As it was impossible 

 either to climb the tree or hew it down, I endeavored 

 to knock off the cones by firing at them with ball, 

 when the report of my gun brought eight Indians, 



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