"It was still early morning when I found myself
fairly adrift. Delicious sunshine came pouring over

the hills I heard trees falling for hours at

the rate of one every two or three minutes; some
uprooted, partly on account of the loose, water-soaked
condition of the ground ; others broken straight across,
where some weakness caused by fire had determined
the spot The gestures of the various trees made a
delightful study. Young sugar-pines, light and feath-
ery as squirrel-tails, were bowing almost to the ground ;
while the grand old patriarchs, whose massive boles
had been tried in a hundred storms, waved solemnly
above them, their long, arching branches streaming
fluently on the gale, and every needle thrilling and
singing and shedding off keen lances of light like a
diamond.
51



THE INDIAN AND OUT-OF-DOOR LIFE

"I drifted on through the midst of this passionate
music and motion, across many a glen from ridge to
ridge; often halting in the lee of a rock for shelter, or
to gaze and listen. Even when the grand anthem had
swelled to its highest pitch, I could distinctly hear the
varying tones of individual trees, — spruce and fir and
pine and leafless oak, — and even the infinitely gentle
rustle of the withered grasses at my feet. Each was
expressing itself in its own way, — singing its own
song and making its own peculiar gestures, — mani-
festing a richness of variety to be found in no other
forest I have yet seen.
