SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 89 



A striking fact in the reproduction of the Olympic forest is that very 

 few trees start on the forest soil.' Young seedlings of Douglas fir occur 

 only, so far as my experience shows, in openings made by iire from 

 which the vegetable soil has been burned away. Cedar and spruce are 

 most plentiful in the same situations, but are also found in the forests, 

 while young growth of hemlock is exceedingly common everywhere. 

 Young trees which start in the forest ajjpear almost without exception 

 to begin life on stubs or trunks of dead or fallen timber, and to extend 

 their roots gradually down along the rotting wood to the layer of veg- 

 etable soil, and through it to the mineral soil beneath. 



When the wood upon which the seedlings started has rotted away, 

 the young trees are left standing propped high above the ground by 

 the strong roots which they have formed. These roots gradually grow 

 together to form a trunk, which in the end betrays its origin only by a 

 greater proportionate girth near the ground. 



FIRE. 



The whole of that portion of the reserve visited by me appears to have 

 been cleared by fire within the last few centuries. The evidence on this 

 point is conclusive. It was at hand wherever I was able to search for 

 it. The mineral soil was found on examination to be overlaid by a layer 

 of charcoal and ashes, which gave evidence of the presence of fire in the 

 past. Continuous stretches of miles without a break were covered with 

 a uniform, growth of Douglas fir from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, interspersed 

 with numerous rotting stumps of much larger trees bearing the marks 

 of fire. The young firs were entirely unscarred, but charcoal was found 

 at the roots of some specimens which had been thrown by the wind. 



In other j)laces, among forests of the same character, charcoal and 

 ashes appeared beneath the vegetable soil where a trail had been cut 

 into the side of a hill. Charcoal was found directly beneath a growing 

 cedar tree 4 feet in diameter, under which a hole had been exca- 

 vated in the course of lumbering operations. This mass of evidence 

 acquires a crucial importance with relation to the Ibrest froni the fact 

 that in my ten days' visit to this region I did not see a single young 

 seedling of Douglas fir under the forest cover, nor a single opening made 

 by fire which did notcontain them. Since not much less than half of the 

 total bulk of tlie forests in the region I visited consists of this tree, the 

 bearing of such facts upon the future management is direct and impor- 

 tant. Next to the cedar, the Douglas fir is the most valuable lumber tree 

 of the region, and any system of forest management which is to succeed 

 must provide for its reproduction. 



Fives are dangerous here mainly because of the deep layer of humus 

 which covers the ground and the masses of fallen timber which obstruct 

 the forest in every direction. In many places these prostrate trunks 

 reduce the progress of a man on foot to a small fraction of a mile per 

 hour. Fires which obtain a foothold in such places are extremely diffi- 

 cult to subdue. They burn deeply into the fallen logs, and in hemlock 

 timber often survive even drenching rains. On the trail from Wineton 

 to Beaver a fire which began in August, 1896, survived the winter in 

 this way, and was still burning in February, 1897. But in spite of such 

 difficulties it is possible to extinguish, without undue labor and expense, 

 fires which do not get into the crowns. In that case human efforts are 

 useless. Ground fires are apt to travel slowly, and, with suitable tools, 

 may be successfully attacked. 



