AMERICAN FOREST TREES 309 



of the second year. The leaves of this tree are peculiar in another way. They 

 assume various forms. That in itself is not unusual and occurs with many species; 

 but the canyon live oak has one pattern of leaf for the young tree, another for the old. 

 One form has a margin with sharp, hooked teeth; another has smooth-margined 

 leaves, and there are various intermediate forms. Sizes vary no less than shapes of 

 both acorns and leaves. Some acorns are half an inch in length, others two inches. 



The canyon live oak is believed to be long-lived, but further information is 

 desirable. The massive trunks represent centuries. They usually occur in sheltered 

 places which are measurably secure from the ordinary perils which beset trees, notably 

 the woodsman's ax and the periodic forest fire. The bottoms of canyons where this 

 oak makes choice of situation do not usually burn fiercely, and trees sheltered there 

 escape. Cordwood cutters are the most constant peril to good fuel trees in California; 

 but many a canyon is safe from their invasions, because of lack of roads. There the 

 most magnificent oaks rear their crowns in security, while trees of inferior size and 

 character, which grow on exposed slopes and flats, fall before the cordwood cutter, 

 and go to the ricks in village vvoodyards. 



The wood of canyon live oak is superior to that of any other oak in its range. 

 It is of light brown color, and is tough, strong, stiff, and heavy. The trunks are 

 generally unsuitable for sawlogs, being too short, but when a chance tree is found that 

 may be cut into lumber, it is considered a prize. Trunks are seldom good for more 

 than one sawlog. In that respect this oak may be compared with the southern live 

 oak. The scarcity of good hardwoods on the Pacific coast adds to the value of what 

 may be found there. If the canyon live oak grew in the East, and developed a trunk 

 of the same size and shape as it has in its present home, it would attract no more 

 attention from the users of hardwoods than the live oak in the South attracts now. 

 But place makes great difference. 



Factories in California do not report the use of much of this oak, yet consider- 

 able quantities of it are in service. The most important place found for it is in 

 country and village blacksmith shops, where wagons are repaired. Nearly every 

 piece of wood which goes into a wagon, except the bed, may be this oak. Many 

 persons consider it the best wagon timber on the Pacific coast, and it is particularly 

 valued for tongues, not only for wagons, but for heavy log trucks which are operated 

 by several yoke of oxen. The wood is likewise made into singletrees. It has always 

 been in use in California for pack saddles. That article is small, but many saddles 

 were formerly made, and the pack saddle is still an important article in the mountains. 

 Trains of mules, horses, and burros thread the narrow paths, where wheeled vehicles 

 cannot go, and deliver supplies to camps and mines in remote districts. The pack 

 saddle's strength is frequently all that intervenes between the load and destruction; 

 for the snapping of a piece of wood may let the pack go over a precipice beyond 

 recovery. The pack trains are slowly passing out of use in the West, as they long ago 

 disappeared from the "bridle paths" of eastern mountains and forests; but they are 

 still to be seen among the fastnesses of the Sierra Nevadas, as in the days when a 

 western poet burst into inspired song of the long pack trains going 

 "Up and down o'er the mountain trail 

 With one horse tied to another's tail." 



HUCKLEBERRY OAK (Qvercus chrysolepis vaccinifolia) is a variety of canyon 

 live oak, and is never large enough to supply wood for any purpose, but is valuable as 

 a covering to the ground on exposed mountains. It is usually a shrub, and specimens 

 no more than a foot high are mature and bear acorns enormously out of proportion to 

 the size of the tree. If the canyon live oak of largest size in the low hills bore acorns 



