1901 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



35 



big stone ; and we went banging along as 

 fast as ever. " I ain't driven stage much," 

 he explained apologetically, but with no 

 trace of anxiety or concern for the problem 

 before him. It was as though driving 

 were a thing you might inherit or have 

 thrust upon you, but need not worry to ac- 

 quire. 



Well, I was delivered in safety at the 

 end of the division a post-office and two 



cause there was hardly any space among the 

 boles. The Big Trees of the Calaveras or 

 Mariposa Groves are perhaps individually 

 more colossal, but for density of growth and 

 height they must yield to these coast Red- 

 woods. Sometimes they walled in the 

 view at a hundred yards distance, and al- 

 ways they tapered upward through the 

 green mass of tops high enough to bury 

 three-fifths of the Washington Monument, 



THE STAGE FOR THE " CITY. " 



houses at the forks of Smith River and I , 

 fell into the care of a man whose eyes 

 never left his horses ; but I parted from 

 that first driver with real affection and ad- 

 miration ; he was so serene, and cheerful 

 and secure in his oblivious incompetence. 

 His naive good bye was " Take care of 

 yourself." 



Six miles farther on, after crossing the 

 south fork of Smith River, the stage road 

 slipped in among the tree trunks of a solid 

 Redwood forest solid not merely because 

 almost all the trees were Redwoods, but be- 



or conceal many of the high buildings in 

 New York. The vast interior through 

 which the daily stage makes its creaking 

 progress was silent and solemn as an 

 empty church. Occasionally the wind 

 hummed in the distant foliage, or a stray 

 breeze sifted down and made uncanny 

 commotion among the shrubs, but usually 

 the tall ferns and flowered rhododendrons 

 which covered the ground and the roots of 

 the old windfalls, stood quiet and motion- 

 less as painted things. The place was 

 full of shadows that lurked among the 



