THE WESTERN HEMLOCK. 



229 



ward to Marin County, California, and 

 from the coast region in California to 

 Southern Oregon in the southern por- 



WESTERN HEMLOCK SPRUCE. (Engraved for " Flora " 

 from young trees in Lord Selborne's plantations 

 at Blaekmoor, Hants.) 



tion of the belt, and eastwards to Mon- 

 tana in its northern part. The first men- 

 tion of the species occurs in a published 

 account of the voyage of Admiral Van- 

 couver, anEnglish navigator,who visited 

 Puget Sound in 1792. In July of the 

 following year, Alexander Mackenzie, 

 the first white man to cross the North 

 American continent, saw it in latitude 

 52° on the coast of what is now British 

 Columbia. A description of the tree was 

 published in 1 8 14 in the journal of the 

 Lewis and Clarke Expedition, which 

 passed the winter ofi 805 near the mouth 

 of the Columbia River. The distribution 

 of the Western Hemlock indicates clear- 

 ly its chief requirements to be a cool and 

 moist climate. Western Washingtonand 

 Oregon, where it reaches its best de- 

 velopment, are divided into three longi- 

 tudinal belts, each with distinct charac- 

 teristics of soil and climate. The western 

 strip, between the Pacific Ocean and the 

 Coast Range (which becomes the Olym- 

 pic Mountains in the north) , has a fertile, 

 usually clayey, soil, and rainfall of over 

 70 inches. Between the Coast Range 

 and the foot of the Cascades lies a belt 

 which, protected from the moist sea 

 winds, is comparatively dry ; in this belt 

 there is littleHemlock .On ascending the 

 west slopes of the Cascades the change 

 is again distinctly marked. The soil is 

 of either volcanic or sedimentary origin, 

 and the increasing altitude causes con- 

 densation of the moisture which escapes 

 the Coast Range and is carried eastward 

 over the central valley. Here the West- 

 ern Hemlock again appears, and, at an 

 altitude of from 1,500 to 3,500 feet, 

 reaches its best development, and is 



p 3 



