GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 219 



forts of individuals and the prosperity of the country. The subject of a 

 plentiful supply of lumber and wood for the various purposes of life is 

 one that we cannot much longer neglect. Whoever takes the trouble 

 to look this subject fully in the face, and reflects upon the future of 

 California, must feel, as we do, that something should be done, and that 

 immediately, looking to the substitution of new forests in the place 

 of the old ones in our State, now so rapidly being consumed and 

 destroyed. A full discussion of this subject cannot be entered into in 

 the short space allowed in a mere report, where so many subjects of 

 interest claim attention. But we propose to notice some facts and 

 make some suggestions, which may lead to further investigation and, 

 we hope, to energetic action. 



" We have become so accustomed to speak of the forests of our State, 

 of our 'big trees,' as the grandest and most majestic in the world j 

 we hear so much of the vast quantities of timber and lumber being 

 shipped from those forests, to supply the nations of the earth with 

 masts and other heavy timbers for ship-building and other purposes, 

 that we have thoughtlessly come to regard our supply of these mate- 

 rials and of materials for fuel as practically inexhaustible. The facts 

 are quite different. Although the forests we have are properly a sub- 

 ject of State pride, they are as properly a subject of State protection. 

 , California is far from being a well- timbered country. Nearly all the 

 timber of any value for ship and general building purposes, or for lum- 

 ber for general use, is embraced within small portions of the Coast 

 Eange or the Sierra Nevada districts. Eedwood, the most valuable tim- 

 ber in the State, and probably in the world — taking all its qualities into 

 consideration — is principally confined to the counties of Mendocino, 

 Sonoma, and Santa Cruz. Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Mateo con- 

 tain but small tracts each covered with this valuable timber. Hum- 

 boldt, Trinity, Klamath, and Del Norte embrace nearly all the balance 

 of the timber of value in the Coast Eange. It mostly consists of an 

 inferior or hybrid redwood, spruce, and pine. The lumber district of 

 the Sierra Nevada is principally embraced in the counties of El Dorado, 

 Placer, Nevada, Sierra, Plumas, and Siskiyou. Calaveras, Tuolumne, 

 and Mariposa contain only scattering clusters of valuable timber, 

 though some of the largest and finest trees in the world are found 

 within their borders. The timber of this district is mostly different 

 varieties of pine, spruce, and cedar. The other mountain-counties of the 

 State afford very little timber of any account for building purposes or 

 for lumber. The agricultural counties, as a general thing, have only 

 narrow strips of timber along the water-courses, consisting mostly of 

 scrub-oak, cotton-wood, sycamore and willow, of but little general value 

 except for fire-wood. The surface of our best timbered counties is not, in 

 general, half covered with valuable timber. It is therefore safe to esti- 

 mate that not over one-twentieth of the surface of the State is covered 

 with forests containing trees valuable for timber or lumber. 



" It is now but about twenty years since the consumption of timber and 

 lumber commenced in California, and yet we have the opinion of good 

 judges, the best lumber-dealers in the State, that at least one-third of 

 all of our accessible timber of value is already consumed and destroyed. 

 If we were to continue the consumption and destruction at the same 

 rate in the future as in the past, it would require only forty years there- 

 fore to exhaust our entire present supply. This, in itself, seems like a 

 startling proposition, but let us look a little further, and we shall find 

 truths and considerations more startling still. In the twenty years to 

 come we will probably more than double our population, but let us as- 



