THE SEQUOIA 299 



I found a scattered growth of Big Trees ex- 

 tending; across the main divide to within a short 

 distance of Hyde's Mill, on a tributary of Dry 

 Creek. The mountain ridge on the south side of 

 the stream was covered from base to summit with 

 a most superb growth of Big Trees. What a 

 picture it made ! In all my wide forest wanderings 

 I had seen none so sublime. Every tree of all 

 the mighty host seemed perfect in beauty and 

 strength, and their majestic domed heads, rising 

 above one another on the mountain slope, were 

 most imposingly displayed, like a range of bossy 

 upswelling cumulus clouds on a calm sky. 



In this glorious forest the mill was busy, form- 

 ing a sore, sad centre of destruction, though small 

 as yet, so immensely heavy was the growth. 

 Only the smaller and most accessible of the trees 

 were being cut. The logs, from three to ten or 

 twelve feet in diameter, were dragged or rolled 

 with long strings of oxen into a chute and sent 

 flying down the steep mountain side to the mill 

 flat, where the largest of them were blasted into 

 manageable dimensions for the saws. And as 

 the timber is very brash, by this blasting and 

 careless felling on uneven ground, half or three 

 fourths of the timber was wasted. 



I spent several days exploring the ridge and 

 counting the annual wood rings on a large num- 

 ber of stumps in the clearings, then replenished 

 my bread sack and pushed on southward. All 



