ONE LIVING ONE DEAD 



after one of our old employees of that 



name." 



He told me that the tree stood about 

 five miles northeast of the village of 

 Hume and at an elevation of about 7000 

 feet. He gave me the circumference and 

 much other information concerning it. 



During this conversation, which was 

 held in an old wooden building called a 

 garage, one of those infrequent but ter- 

 rific storms of thunder, lightning, rain 

 and wind was gathering up the mountain 

 to the east of us. Later it broke with all 

 its fury and all question of making a safe 

 climb of the mountain was deemed im- 

 probable, a portion of the grade of the 

 imperfect roads or- trails having a per- 

 centage of fully thirty degrees, and in one 

 case a length of over 600 feet. So the 

 premeditated trip had to be abandoned 

 for that time and well that it was so, for 

 the main lines of the Southern Pacific 

 and Santa Fe were put out of commission 



41 



