CALIFORNIA TREES AND BIRDS 



The Forests 



ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY ELOISL J. ROORBACK 



" HE redwood forests of the 

 Coast Range are surely 

 the abodes of beauty — 

 beauty of flower, fern, 

 brook and tree. 



These forests invite 

 you, as it were, to walk in 

 them. They fairly coax 

 you away from the noisy 

 highways. There is nothing to frighten or 

 disturb you here — nothing to overawe, but 

 many, many things to soothe, to fill with 

 joy, to quicken interest, to inspire love. 



Small ferns, making soft your rocky rest- 

 ing place, delicate maidenhair ferns to 

 weave tapestries for you to love, huge wood- 

 wardians for you to admire and wonder at, 

 brooks for you to drink from or to bathe in, 

 flowers for you to rejoice over, noble trees 

 to shield you from the fierce sun, birds to 

 sing to you. Everything seems to welcome 

 you, uniting to make your visit a happy one. 

 What is the spirit here which so charms ? 



When you walk in the dense parts you 

 feel as if you were in a cathedral, but when 

 you look out into a sunny opening, it seems 

 as if one more step and the heart of fairyland 

 will be reached I 



Here is the fern-covered source of a 

 brook. Is it the place where the queen of 

 the fairies renews her youth each morning, 

 or is it the baptismal font of a grand 

 cathedral ? Are these flowers dancing 

 fairies or the decoration on Nature's altar ? 

 Do these tall trees form the walls of a fairy 

 palace, or the aisles of a temple ? Is fairy- 

 land flourishing in the midst of a cathedral ? 

 It seems so. 



We are told that these redwoods {Sequoia 

 sempervirens) reach up so far into the sky 

 that they may the better gather the moisture 

 of the high regions to give it again to the 

 profusion of growing things around them. 



There is always a dense growth of mois- 

 ture-loving plants and shrubs in a sequoia 

 forest. One finds the sorrel, pyrola, wood- 



land flower of Bethlehem, orchids, brilliant 

 clintonias, huckleberry, hazels, thimble- 

 berry, ferns and many other flowers and 

 shrubs, seeking the moisture gathered and 

 conserved by these stately trees. 



Delicacy is the chief characteristic of 

 everything in Coast Range forests. How 

 different is the beauty of the Sierra Nevada 

 Range — the snowy range. 



These forests do not seem to invite nor 

 coax you to enter and enjoy, but rather do 

 they almost dare you to trespass. 



As you leave the lower country and press 

 eastward and upward into the Sierra Range, 

 you leave all familiar things behind. From 

 the time you enter the first hills and see ridge 

 after ridge of pine-covered, mist-weathered 

 peaks, you feel as if you were entering, 

 uninvited, a country where you are not 

 wanted. 



You are almost afraid to breathe. You do 

 not so much notice the flowers now, for the 

 most noble of all vegetation — the giant trees 

 — make you forget all else. 



Yellow pines, incense cedars, the Sequoia 

 gigantea that you pass exceed in grandeur 

 all other trees. Upward still you climb, 

 among the giant spruces, firs and ridge- 

 loving sugar-pines. 



You no longer feel as if you were among 

 the fairies, nor in temples where gods are 

 worshiped, but you feel as if you were in the 

 presence of the gods themselves. Such a 

 noble company to be with! You walk 

 reverently, as if among your superiors — yet 

 who would choose to be with inferiors ? 



Snow-clad mountain-tops, tempestuous 

 torrents, still nights, storms and mighty 

 winds are to be found in this Sierra Range. 

 Everything is rugged, strong, large. Strong 

 shadows, strong lights, huge branches, 

 immense trees — wildness, freedom, fresh- 

 ness, vigor, is the song of these forests. 



The few flowers found in these high 

 regions are generally highly-colored. As, 

 for instance, the snow-plant, so often 



