Point Lobos 207 



and left forever. Only the hand of intelligent man can 

 save them now. As just remarked, they will grow, 

 where planted as far north as the Columbia River, and 

 will probably be thus perpetuated in cultivation. The 

 associated pine, though now occupying a somewhat wider 

 freehold, is after all not so fortunate. Of little value for 

 lumber, and less tractable in cultivation, it has small 

 assistance from our present system of economy. For 

 years the Chinaman has been busy hewing the Monterey 

 pine away to feed the furnaces of the Hotel del Monte, 

 as well as the insatiate if more modest heaters of a thous- 

 and houses. Besides this, chicken-farming is the fashion- 

 able industry of the region and to afford room for such 

 gentle activities, the pines are widely cleared away. Upon 

 our criminally careless methods of cutting, the usual dis- 

 asters have of course ensued. Great fires, started in 

 refuse left by the Mongolian choppers, some years since 

 burned over several thousand acres. But for this tree, 

 the site of Hotel del Monte and the village of Pacific 

 Grove would see but plains of wind-swept sand. The 

 live-oak, as it appears, cannot do the work alone. 



The third plant mentioned, the live-forever, true to its 

 name, seems destined to immortality. It has found its 

 home in the niches of the granite, keeping pace with its 

 retreat before the advancing ocean. The race in this 

 world is sometimes not to the mighty. 



Hcec fdbula docet ; 



1. No fact in the natural world is insignificant. A 

 few old pine trees on a rock may have a scientific interest 

 far transcending that of some wide-spread forest. 



2. No fact in this world is isolated. The destiny of 



