thf s.ime lume which is clothed in the Northwest Pacific type of 

 rain forest. However, these hi^hLinds are surrounded by a lush 

 growth of broad-leafed forest at lower levels, and at sea level on 

 the east side by typical parklands This vegetation follows the 

 coast line south for some way. while the parklands lie in a nar- 

 row strip to the east in the Willamette valley. 



Along the coast from Grays Harbor to Cape Blanco there 

 stretches a long mountain range clothed in a luxuriant growth. 

 This strip lies along the border between the Deciduous Forest 

 and the Transition Belts so that broad-leafed trees predominate 

 at the lowest levels and conifers take over at higher altitudes. 

 The coast from Cape Flattery to the estuary of the Columbia 

 River is sloping, with offshore bars and a coastal plain that 

 widens out about the Chehalis River mouth. The southern part 

 is cliff-bound and at the south end flanked by mountainous sand 

 dunes, which we shall visit presently. 



These mountains are also clothed in a veritable "rain forest," 

 so moist in some paris that foresters call it "the asbestos zone" 

 because it will not bum. with a lush bedding of ferns, delicate 

 huckleberry, and a few other woody bushes beneath. Under these 

 is a ground cover of sorrel and various beautiful mosses. The 

 canopy is dominantly composed of magnificent hemlocks and 

 spruces, but wherever these are eliminated, by falls or fire or today 

 by clean logging, a seething mass of mountain alder springs up. 

 Among this the seedlings of the conifers struggle up to eventually 

 take over again. Also, various other interesting plants grow 

 under the great trees, notably one that has the appropriate 

 name of the "devils club." This is a herbaceous plant growing 

 to some six feet, with large leaves covered all over with a tight 

 fuzz of sharp needles. In these forests are some very large trees. 

 two especially — to be seen south of Astoria — being reputed to 

 be exceptional. One is a Sitka spruce. 15 feet 9 inches in diameter 

 as measured at a height of four and a half feet from the ground. 

 195 feet tall, and estimated to contain 60,000 board feet of lum- 

 ber, enough to build six two-bedroom houses. Its age is believed 

 to be about seven hundred years. The other is a Douglas "fir" 

 that has a diameter of 15 feet 7 inches, is 225 feet tall despite the 

 fact that a large portion of its crown has been broken off, and 

 contains 100.000 board feet of lumber. This is thought to be at 

 least a thousand years old. It is an awe-inspiring tree to look at. 

 possessed of a sort of magnificence and an ancient placidity. I 

 lay on my bade — the best way to look at such a tree — gazing up 

 at it in the shafted sunlight of the forest in which it stands; and 

 I got a great thrill thereby because on this tree — mostly on its 

 first limbs, whidi are over a hundred feet above the ground — 

 there were growing four other kinds of plants — several licorice 

 ferns, two red huckleberries, a vine maple, and several (of all 

 things) little hemlock trees, most of which were growing out of 

 its slightly leaning side. 



The stately conifers in this forest stand close together but are 

 not too tightly packed, and the sunlight plays all manner of 

 light effects upon the filigree of delicate green-leafed little things 

 below. The earth is soft, moist, and loamy and smells of aromatic 

 rosins. There is silence and stillness, but for the now-and-then 

 subdued roaring of a wind passing overhead. And there is life 

 here. There are deer and great herds of elk that, although mostly 

 keeping to the more open areas and the broad-leafed bottoms 

 and gulleys, may be seen passing majestically through. There is 

 a tiny chipmunk (Townsend's) that "chips" at you and plays 



A mule deer buck in velvet in the Sierra 'Nevada. The typi- 

 cal deer of the V/est. it is the common form found along the 

 Pacific coastal ranges. 



about m the low bushes, feeding on berries, and there arc in- 

 numerable coyotes that wander hither and yon unseen but leave 

 their tracks everywhere The most outstanding bird is the 

 Pileated Woodpecker, a magnificent creature almost as big as a 

 crow with a metallic red topknot; this bird shrieks at you and 

 makes the gallery of the forest echo with its riveting- and tt 

 really can make the chips (as big as you.- thumb) fly There is 

 also a tiny wren that skips about among the low tangle with Its 

 tail held erect, making a noise like two pebbles being tapped 

 together; and there is the colorful Black-headed Grosbeak, a 

 finch that putters about on the outer foliage of the conifers. 



This is a lovely, ancient world that, alas, modem man has 

 to a great extent destroyed. There were always fires due to 

 lightning, but we have made them more frequent and more 

 destructive; also, logging produces horrible spectacles, though 

 it is in many respects as beneficial as it is harmful, for it pro- 

 motes new growth of the conifers. Today, led by the govern- 

 ments of the states and the union, this practice is pretty well 

 regulated, and there are several big companies that have gone 

 beyond the minima of care and conservation laid down by 

 officialdom. The results are apparent in magnificent young and 

 immature stands of healthy trees everywhere. Fire, under certain 

 circumstances, can be not only beneficial but essential to some 

 forests, and its curtailment may produce odd effects by allowing 

 certain trees to predominate when others that would naturally 

 do so are smothered. Then again, unless proper steps are taken 

 to aid the conifers in coming bade after clearing, alders and 

 other non-conifers may take hold and grow so densely and 

 quickly in this land of warm fogs and much rain that they 

 completely blanket the conifers. 



SEA LIONS AND SEA PIGEONS 



The coast of this subprovince is glorious to behold. The great 

 Pacific rollers undulate forever upon the rocky cliffs and thunder 

 into sticky-looking foam. Between the cliffs and rocky headlands 

 are curving sandy bays, their beaches piled high just above tide 

 mark with a rampart of driftwood of gargantuan proportions. 

 In this sea there is a great deal of life. All down the Pacific coast 

 from Alaska to Baja California there are immense kelp (sea- 

 weed) beds somewhat offshore, and southward through these 

 the gray whales again pass every year, just as they did before 

 the white man more or less exterminated them in the latter 

 part of the last century. There are also a great many seals and 

 sea lions along this coast, and there is one place — now a tourist 

 attraction and one of the most worth while on the entire con- 

 tinent—just north of Florence, Oregon, where the latter assemble 

 in great numbers. Here are both the little southern species 

 (Zalophus) known to almost everybody as the trained "seal," 

 that adept comic of so many acts, and the vast, lumbering 

 northern form (Eumatapias). 



Together, there are several hundred of them that spend more 

 than half the year either on ledges at the bottom of a three- 

 hundred-foot cliff, or in an adjacent series of gigantic sea caves, 

 where they breed. These (or this — for it is really one great 

 tunnel entered from the sea at one end by a vast archway and 

 then exiting via a long tunnel and a small hole to the south) 

 are filled with tumbled boulders upon which the huge waves 

 break deep inside the cliff. Upon these rocks the seals lounge 

 about, belching and snoring. Above, in the eerie damp shadows, 

 many strange birds called sea pigeons or pigeon-guillemots 

 (Cepphus columba) make their nests; they have black plumage, 

 bright red feet, and vivid white wing patches that are only seen 



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