FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



for that length of time without a frequent return 

 upon his steps, for the inclosure does not con- 

 tain many acres ; but I had no desire to walk 

 steadily, nor any objection to passing again and 

 again over the same ground. What I mean is, 

 that the place is so dark, so densely shaded, so 

 wild in itself, and so surrounded with wildness, 

 that one has very little sensation of being in a 

 park, and can often forget entirely that he is in 

 a place devoted to exploitation and show. Wander 

 far enough to get away from the sight of trees 

 criminally disfigured by ugly, staring placards 

 bearing the ridiculous titles of "Jumbo," "Roose- 

 velt," and the like, and you are, as it were, taken 

 into the very lap of Nature, and can rest there 

 in wondering content. 



As I have implied, it was the height of the 

 trees, rather than their girth, that laid hold of my 

 imagination. Their circumference I could walk 

 around, but their altitude was like the divine 

 wisdom : it was high ; I could not attain unto it. 

 I was never tired, though the muscles of my neck 

 sometimes were, of looking up the straight, naked 

 boles into the far-away tops. The tallest was only 

 three hundred and six feet high, to be sure (a wind 

 having broken off some seventy-five feet a few 

 winters ago — I report what was told me) ; and 

 the Northwest has many trees taller than that, I 

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