160 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



to the one under discussion, but probably about half, as that much was credited to 

 California where this tree is at its best. The fir does not suffer in comparison with 

 trees associated with it. Its trunk does not average quite as large as the pines, yet 

 larger than most of the cedars; but in height it equals the best of its associates, and in 

 symmetrical form, and beauty of color of foliage, it must be acknowledged superior. 

 The dark intensity of its green crown when thrown against the blue summer skies of 

 the Sierras forms a picture which probably no tree in the world can surpass and few 

 can equal. Its cones suffer from the depredations of the ever-hungry Douglas 

 squirrel which is too impatient to wait for nature's slow process to ripen and scatter 

 the seeds; but he climbs the trunks which stand as straight as plummet lines two 

 hundred feet or more, and clinging to the topmost swaying branches, clips the cone 

 stems with his teeth, and the cone goes to the ground like a shot. A person who will 

 stand still in a Sierra forest In Ir.te summer, where firs abound, will presently hear the 

 cones thumping the ground on all sides of him. If his eyes are good, and he looks 

 carefully, he may see the squirrels, silhouetted against the sky on far-away tree tops, 

 seeming so small in the distance that they look the size of mice; yet the Douglas 

 squirrel is about the size of the eastern red squirrel. He does not always let the cones 

 fall when he cuts their stems, but sometimes carries them down the long trunk to the 

 ground, then goes back for another. The squirrel hoards the cones for winter, but 

 does not neglect to fully satisfy his appetite while about the work. A single hoard 

 carefully covered with pine needles as a roof against winter snow may contain five 

 or ten bushels of cones, which are not all fir cones, but these predominate in most 

 hoards. 



