WHAT THE BIG TREES MAY DO FOR CALIFORNIA. 103 



terey County. It is the region of heavy annual rainfall, of continuous 

 summer fogs; and the great redwood, the dominant species, is accom- 

 panied by maritime or semi-maritime pines, firs, spruces, and cypresses. 

 Within the characteristic part of this belt, that north of the Golden 

 Gate, the question of summer aridity does not enter; the rainfall is 

 abundant, often excessive, and irrigation rarely considered. 



The redwood land when cleared (and all of it is likely to be cleared) 

 is fertile. Therefore, the question of how much shall be renewed in 

 forest is not one of protection of the water supply of the region, but 

 of the relative profitableness of agriculture and lumbering. The sec- 

 ond forest area, that of the semi-arid and arid summer, may be divided 

 into three sections, with relation to the great industries of agriculture 

 and mining on one hand, which need an abundant water supply, and 

 lumbering on the other. The first section is that of the Modoc lava 

 district of northeastern California, with Mt. Shasta on the west, Las- 

 sen's Butte on the south, and the McCloud and Pitt Eiver valleys 

 between. The lava is comparatively recent, covers nearly all the coun- 

 try, and is very porous. The rains and melting snows largely pass into 

 subterranean channels which issue far down the great lava slopes in 

 great springs or rivers that would readily float, in the case of Fall River, 

 an ordinary coast trading vessel. 



Considerable of this lava district is covered with a soil that will 

 support a fair forest growth, but it will be readily understood that this 

 growth is of little consequence in protecting the head-waters of the 

 McCloud and Pitt Rivers, the most important feeders of the Sacra- 

 mento, if these head-waters are largely subterranean. This region is, 

 indeed, when trees can be grown at all, naturally a lumbering district. 

 Its elevation brings it within the region of heavy summer frosts,; its 

 seasons are shortened, and its soils not rich. Let the lumber, chiefly 

 yellow and sugar pine, spruce, fir, and cedar, be harvested, and the 

 denuded areas be replanted, and this region would become the per- 

 manent lumber district of California. 



The second subdivision begins with the southern end of the Sierras, 

 at an elevation of 5,000 feet, and continues northward to Lassen's 

 Butte, sweeps around to the upper Sacramento River, gradually descend- 

 ing to 2.500 or 2,000 feet, and includes the ranges west and north- 

 west of the Sacramento and east of the redwood belt. It is the great 

 timber belt of the California mountains. It has a broad tract of 

 chaparral between it and the fertile plains of the San Joaquin and 

 Sacramento, and fades insensibly on the east into the bare crags of the 

 Sierra Alps. This great timber belt is the mother of all the rivers of 

 central California, and its welfare concerns the new California, the 

 state that is yet to be, through the scientific conservation and use of the 



