17_174
Crescent City [July 14, 1907]
the mill, burning night and day, weekdays and Sundays, year in and year out, increasingly eating up good wood that people in the cities are in want for. -I went to the office of L.F. Cooper. He is a lawyer and also interested in timber and mines. His office is large and he has a rear office of as large proportions. Both were veritable libraries of law and a not negligible quantity of general literature, including the latest current books. Besides both places were full of interesting things. The front office had glass cases containing minerals. A tab le top made of burly redwood, of oval outline interested me at once. I did not get much information from him about Tan Oak. -Phil Stevens is the Forest Ranger at Big Flat. C.E. Shillingford is a Fire Warden and wants to be a Forest Ranger. -The town to the northwest is backed by a grove Sitka Spruce which protects it from the most steadily prevailing winds. The winds blow three days, attaining the maximum velocity on the second day. After that the fog comes. I noticed a small grove on the flat southeast of the town. At a distance it looked quite like the Bishop Pine on the Mendocino Coast. I made a trip to be sure. They were Beach Pines (Pinus contorta), 20 to 35 feet high, rough barked. They certainly simulated in the
|
17_175
[Crescent City] July 14, 1907
colony, the aspect of Bishop Pine. They also associate with Sitka Spruce on the flats. -The Redwood Forest here is not pure. Sitka Spruce is abundant on the western part of it. The trees with trunks 2 to 8 feet through at 6 ft. and 175 feet high. They are remarkably buttressed at base, being nearly twice the diam. [diameter] at base. Abies grandis is also in this part of belt; trees 1 to 4 ft. trunk diam. and 150 feet high. Also noted in middle of belt Coast Hemlock is mostly 1 to 2 feet diameter and 175 feet high. It is throughout main stand of belt. As illustrating the tropical character of forest: on a Redwood stump 45 feet high is a Hemlock tree growing which is 50 feet high and sends its roots down the sides of the Redwood clasping the supporting stump like long slender fingers of a grasping hand. -Rhododendron occid. 14 ft. h., often simulating a small tree with distinct long trunk and crown. -Smith River forest. -Vaccinium ovatum, 12 ft. h., Smith R. forest. -From the South Fork Hotel to Adams Station there is some Tan Oak scattered through the forest all the way. It is 1 ft. trunk diam. and 50 to 70 feet high. I saw only one patch where the trees were 2 ft. diam. redwood, very thin, extends about half way to Adam Station. Adam Station is on the main Smith River, just below the forks (Middle Fork and North Fork).
|