t rocks of the Coast ranges of California. These cones and
stems were washed into some muddy estuary and there buried, millions
of years ago. The mud inclosing them was compressed and hardened,
and finally changed to slate. This was at last exposed upon the
surface through the uplifting of a mountain range and the work
of erosion.

Some of the groves of the Big Trees have been included in government
parks and reservations, but others are being cut as rapidly as
possible by the lumbermen. The redwood of the Coast ranges is not
easily killed, for it sprouts from the stump, and will in the course
of time form forests again; but the Big Trees rarely replace themselves
when a grove has been cut down. These trees are so few in number
and of such remarkable interest that they should be spared the
fate of the common forest tree.

It would make you feel sad to visit one of the groves and see,
as I did, a fallen giant, fully thirty feet in diameter, lying
split open upon the ground. This tree was so large that, in order
that it might be handled at all, powder had to be used to blast it
in pieces. The tree was knotty, and according to the lumbermen,
of little value, and might as well have been left. What excuse is
there for the wanton destruction of a noble tree like this one?
It must have stood from five thousand to six thousand years. It
was a mighty tree at the beginning of the Christian era, and was
growing, a strong tree, when our ancestors were the rudest savages
in the wilds of Europe.

But we must not remain among the Big Trees, for the forests extend
much farther up the mountains. The most important tree of the upper
forest belt is the fir, which is found growing from five thousand
to nearly nine thousand feet above sea-level. It is one of the most
graceful of the conifers. Sometimes these trees reach a height
of two hundred and fifty feet and form dense forests with little
undergrowth. The branches make the soft, fragrant beds which so
rest and delight the tired mountain climber. Here and there about
the springs and at the heads of the streamlets the firs appear to
stand back, making room for green meadows brightened with a profusion
of flowers.

[Illustration: FIG. 128.--ALPINE HEMLOCKS]

The tamarack, or lodge-pole pine, is sometimes found at about the
same elevation as the firs, but seems to prefer the moist lands
about the meadows and the bottoms of the narrow valleys. This tree is
widely distributed at high