1902, 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



195 



of their northern extension. In regard 

 to the relative numbers in the two sec- 

 tions, I should say that where the south- 

 ern extension might number its trees by 

 the hundreds, in the northern they might 

 be numbered b}' the tens of thousands. 

 The writer feels confident of having 

 completely outlined their area of dis- 

 tribution, and in so doing his ideas of 

 their climatic and ecological affinities 

 have changed. From the fact that they 

 were found in the southern mountains, 

 but little higher in the canyons than 

 the redwoods, and were only a few miles 

 from the ocean, he was led to infer that 

 they belonged with the redwoods to the 

 fog-belt of the coast ranges. It is now 

 clear that they do not belong to that 

 belt, and consequently not to those 

 stream basins west of the westernmost 

 coast range, but belong to the ranges 

 next within, which have abundant pre- 

 cipitation, but are semi-arid in summer, 

 and which give rise to streams whose 

 flow, though often uncertain, is impor- 

 tant to several towns and a rich val- 

 ley the Salinas of this region. 



This brings us to the second part of 

 this paper the economic aspects of the 

 distribution of the Abies venusta. In 

 regard to the southern extension of the 

 species south of the latitude of Santa 

 Lucia Peak, the highest point of these 

 mountains I should .say that it is at 

 present onh^ of the slightest importance 

 to the protection of the stream sources 

 of the Naci-mi-en-to, one of the three 

 chief branches of the Salinas River. 

 Quite probably, however, if this region 

 was protected from fire, and the Abies 

 venusta extensively propagated in this 

 basin, which must be well adapted to 

 it, it would insure the steady flow of 

 this uncertain stream. 



To understand its economic relation in 

 the northern extension, it is necessary 

 to explain that it occupies here practi- 

 cally a triangular area, whose eastern 

 angle reaches back at least 18 miles 

 from the coast among mountains often 

 over 4,500 and 5,000 feet in elevation, 

 largely covered with chaparral, but in 

 favorable localities producing consider- 

 able tracts of Pin lis pojiderosa, Pi mis 



THRKE SHAVER FIRS IN LOST VALLEY THAT ESCAPED THE GREAT FIRE OF 189S. THE DEAD 



TREES ARE QUERCUS CHRYSOLEPIS. 



