WILD PARKS OF THE WEST 19 



heart of this forest, and Avalanche Lake is ten 

 miles above McDonald, at the feet of a group of 

 glacier-laden mountains. Give a month at least 

 to this precious reserve. The time will not be 

 taken from the sum of your life. Instead of 

 shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and 

 make you truly immortal. Nevermore will time 

 seem short or long, and cares will never again 

 fall heavily on you, but gently and kindly as 

 gifts from heaven. 



The vast Pacific Coast reserves in Washington 

 and Oregon — the Cascade, Washington, Mount 

 Rainier, Olympic, Bull Run, and Ashland, named 

 in order of size — include more than 12,500,000 

 acres of magnificent forests of beautiful and 

 gigantic trees. They extend over the wild, un- 

 explored Olympic Mountains and both flanks of 

 the Cascade Range, the wet and the dry. On 

 the east side of the Cascades the woods are sunny 

 and open, and contain principally yellow pine, of 

 moderate size, but of great value as a cover for 

 the irrigating streams that flow into the dry in- 

 terior, where agriculture on a grand scale is being 

 carried on. Along the moist, balmy, foggy, 

 west flank of the mountains, facing the sea, the 

 woods reach their highest development, and, ex- 

 cepting the California redwoods, are the heaviest 

 on the continent. They are made up mostly of 

 the Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga taxifolia), with 

 the giant arbor vitae, or cedar, and several species 



