ESSAY UPON REDWOOD. 85 



With access to tide water great economic value uni- 

 versal uses scarce a remote rival an all but imperishable 

 cedar ! It cannot be urged that the commerce of the world 

 has no demand for such invaluable timber. The most plaus- 

 ible excuse that occurs to our mind is, that enterprise and 

 capital have not been called to it. A great " deal " * of such 

 fine cedar-wood ought to find its way into foreign markets, 

 like similar conifers of far less value from India and other 

 parts of the world. 



Another point, perhaps the more worthy of note, because 

 it seems so inconsistent with a preceding statement of the 

 very perishable nature of some parts and sorts of redwood, or 

 conditions precedent to use, viz, in regard to the more brittle, 

 homogeneous, soft top, portion referred to which, in the re- 

 cently cut timber, is, to a great extent, not to say entirely, re- 

 jected as refuse or only a trifle here and there used as indi- 

 cated. But whenever the storm splits away any of these 

 tenderly brittle tree tops in their living state just at this 

 apparently poorest portion, they slowly season for ages ; and 

 yet it often seems only as an accident of yesterday, so fresh 

 and free from decay are they! (albeit some perish when the 

 soil itself is at fault). Here, too, is the favorite lofty watch- 

 tower of the great " Imperial Woodcock " (Campephilus im- 

 perialis] that haunts the lonely dell," here, too, lie rolls his 

 loud love-call :| * far through the hollow wood-lands re- 

 sounding ! Or, perchance, the wary sentinel, perched upon 

 these high places of the far western wild-wood listening 



"Deal," be it noted, is the old Anglo-Saxon for " dael," a piece of wood German 

 " dicle," in early times a piece of wood riven by a " deal-axe," or froe and still this and 

 other like free-splitting timbers are the sylvan joy and blessing of the early pioneer. 



