176 GREAT CYPRESS TREES. 



Merchant vessels trading along the N.W. coasts have 

 often been known to fall victims to the attacks of 

 these pirates, who massacred the crews, pillaged and 

 burnt the ships, and so left nothing behind that might 

 indicate the fate that had befallen the unfortunate 

 ship; though the truth generally leaked out in the 

 end, from reports circulating among the other tribes, 

 some members of whom were pretty sure to have 

 witnessed what occurred, while they themselves were 

 securely concealed, shrouded in the shadow of the 

 great and pathless forests that enclosed these waters, 

 which are seldom so broad as to be beyond the reach 

 of the eagle eyes of these watchful savages. 



Another beautiful and most ornamental tree some- 

 what similar in character to the giant cedar, is the Nootka 

 Sound cypress (Cupressus Nutkaenis, [Lambert]), per- 

 haps more generally known as the " Thuiopsis Borealis " 

 (Fischer), mostly found on the Western coasts of Van- 

 couver Island, where it forms a large and beautiful 

 tree, growing to 100 feet in height, and 4 feet in 

 diameter. * Many fine specimens of this tree, and of 

 the giant cedar, adorn the lawns of English parks 

 where they have been found perfectly hardy, and they 

 are moreover a great acquisition to most European 

 collections. 



Among the silver firs most remarkable for size 

 and beauty in British Columbia, and North Western 

 America generally, we may mention Picea Grandis, 

 originally discovered by Douglas in Northern California, 

 but afterwards found in great abundance by Jeifry, 

 along the banks of the Frazer, according to whom 

 specimens of it were found near Fort Langley 280 



* Gordon's Pinetum, 1880, p. 94. 



