The Trout of the Great Forest 1 1 9 



out into the sea, forming the northern boundary of the 

 bay of Monterey. They are not very high, but are 

 deeply wooded with splendid forests of sequoia (semper- 

 virens) which a century ago covered every hill, dale and 

 canon, and which to-day present one of the most inspiring 

 pictures of tree growth in the world. Cousins of the great 

 sequoias of the Mariposa region in the Sierra Nevada, they 

 rise to sublime heights, and assume proportions that place 

 them among the wonders of the land. The range is cut, 

 pierced, furrowed by deep canons which are the beds of 

 little rivers like the San Lorenzo, the Soquel and others; 

 mimic canons of the Colorado cutting knife-like down 

 through the rocks of ages, until the walls rise hundreds of 

 feet from the stream or slope down with gentle incline, the 

 sides and summits dark with giant trees, rich with forests 

 of fern and brake, a natural park through which I was car- 

 ried to the upper range, as I proposed to fish the San Lor- 

 enzo down stream and follow the gulch or canon to the sea. 

 There are few more accessible places in America than this 

 great forest, penetrated by a narrow-gage railroad which 

 skirts impassable canons, crosses minor ones; shelves built 

 one thousand feet up, like the paths of the cliff dwellers, 

 carrying you up until you look down on the giant trees. 

 Again there is a mountain road, smooth and well watered, 

 up to the summit; or, you can walk up the San Lorenzo 

 and creep into the very heart of the canon. 



I compromised by trying it all ways, and found each had 

 peculiar charms of its own. On the fishing trip we climbed 

 the range by carriage, going slowly, that we might enter 

 into the full enjoyment of it all; and if you do not know 

 the San Lorenzo, imagine a great black forest so far as 

 shadows are concerned, a deep splendid green from the 

 leaves of countless redwoods, tall, graceful spires, covering 

 every foot and acre, and spread over a region as large as 

 some States ; now clinging to the side, now in deep canons, 

 about you, below and far away, where the green forest 



