So BVERCIESKl. 



What an ezcltlns time 'when the Fine seeds are ripe. The 

 Indians In wild hordes get ready — ^mien, women, and children. 

 They are armed with long beating poles and are loaded down 

 with bags, baskets, and m^ts. It is a gala time. Men leave 

 their work on the ranches and the women, scattered from home 

 as servants, all rally for the great cavalcade, with men in pic- 

 turesque garb and women flaunting gaudy colors— <jften two 

 squaws riding astride of one pony with the papooses strapped 

 on somehow. With Joy and glee and wild abandon the great 

 crowd pitches camp on some stream and then the work begins. 

 The long poles bring down the heavy cones, which are chased 

 by squaws and children as they roll down the hillside. Fires 

 are kindled and the cones under intense heat are made 

 to disgorge the seeds, and feast follows feast, but the principal 

 part of the menu of the wild carnival Is the Pine Nut. You can 

 Imagine the scene. The cones are covered with pitch not yet 

 hardened. Of course, the soft pitch and the dust blend well, 

 and you have a happy, sticky, rollicking mass of humanity; 

 only we would think that if the Indian nuother and her darling 

 child were on too intimate terms, they would have to be pried 

 apart. 



Tons upon tons are taken hom'e, and stored for the winter. 

 Tons are sent away. In all our western cities you see them 

 exposed by the bushel at the fruit stands. Dogs eat them with 

 avidity, and for horses they make a substitute for oats and 

 barley; if you are hungry you could make a good meal of them 

 yourself. 



The Sequoias. Here we come • to the grandest work of 

 God In the vegetable kingdom. There have been massive trees 

 In other lands and climes, but never anything approaching the 

 (mperial grandeur of these monarchs of the woods. They have 

 •marvelous tenacity of life and are bom for the mlllenlumi 



Sequoia Sempervlrens, This is the mighty Redwood, of the 

 Paciflc slope, and the grand forests of this majestic tree are 

 rapidly ^falling before the rapacity of the lumbermen. Btrange 

 that men can see no value in anything unless It can be re- 

 duced to dollars and cents. Tou stand In awe before one of 

 these majestic monuments of God's fatherly care; you think of 

 His tender guardianship over it for a thousand years; how the 

 rains have watered it and the genial suns have kissed its 

 branches; how It now looms up In the majesty of Its youth 

 though ten centuries have passed over it. Tou linger beside It; 

 your eyes ache as they reach its topmost branches and you take 

 In Its symmetry and grandeur. You would stay there for days 

 In companlonshliy of this silent majesty. Along comes a. man 

 with an ax. He sees no beauty there, ho pulls out his tape line 

 and measures it. "That will make so mVich lumber. Yes, there 

 Is a hundred dollars worth in that tree. Boys, cut It down!" 

 Soon the monarch lies prone on the earth before his rapacloui 



