Point Lobos 205 



of these perhaps never passed the limits of southern 

 California ; some passed on into the cul de sac known as 

 lower California, and have never gotten out, one pine, at 

 least, and one cypress. The cypresses seem always to 

 have lead the van for they are nearly all found to-day on 

 the very outskirts of forest vegetation, whatever the re- 

 gion may be. One Mexican species is in Oaxaca, the 

 very southernmost Mexican state, on the Pacific sea 

 again, in that low latitude, 15 north. 



But as already noted, the ice-king's reign in California 

 was not forever. The ice is nearly all gone now, has 

 been for centuries, save that here and there a dimin- 

 ished glacier still lingers in some shaded trough on the 

 peaks of the Sierras, and still forms the icy fountain of 

 some fair California stream. With the retreat of the ice 

 the plants moved back again, or at least attempted so to 

 do. The march, of course, is now in reverse order; 

 larches and spruces and pines now lead the procession 

 while sequoias and cypresses are left the last to bring 

 up the rear. They are marching now; by noting their 

 present position you may see the progress of this stately 

 journey. The gentle sunlight beats their music on the 

 mountain-spires, and the earth herself keeps time for 

 them, nodding, nodding, in nutation and precession. 1 



But, as in returns of any sort, the original order is 

 never quite preserved, so here, the sequoias or "big 

 trees" are following close behind the pines pushing 

 north and west; one species has slipped in before our 

 cypress and in fact effectually shuts it off from the 



i See in this connection Our National Paries, John Muir, pp. 

 335 et seq. 



