COPYRIGHT, GIFFORD
Fir, spruce and cedar you will see along the slopes of the Cascades in varying density and grandeur, from thickets of slender trees reclaiming fire-swept lands to broken ranks of patriarchs whose crowns have swayed before the storms of centuries. Among the foot hills, the pale gray "grand" or white firs (Abies grandis) rear their domes above the common plane in quest of light, occasionally attaining a height of 275 feet, while the lowly yew (Taxus brevifolia), of which the warrior of an earlier time fashioned his bow, overhangs the noisy streams. In the same habitat, where the little rivers debouch into the valleys, you may see the broad-leaf maple, Oregon ash, cottonwood, and a score of lesser deciduous trees on which the filtered rays of sunshine play in softer tones.
COPYRIGHT, JAS. WAGGENER, JR.
Here and there in the Willamette valley you meet foothill yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa var. benthamiana), near relative of the western yellow pine. Oregon oak (Quercus garryana) occurs sparingly throughout the valleys, or reaches up the western foothills of the Willamette, until it meets the great unbroken forest of the Coast Range.
Towing a log raft out to sea, bound for the California markets.
The dense lower forests are never gaily decked, so little sunlight enters. But in early summer, back among the mountains, you may find tangles of half-prostrate rhododendron, from which, far as the eye can reach, the rose-pink gorgeous flowers give back the tints of sunshine and the iridescent hues of raindrops. Mingled with the flush of "laurel" blossoms are nodding plumes of creamy squaw grass, the beautiful xerophyllum. Often this queenly upland flower covers great areas, hiding the desolation wrought by forest fires. Its sheaves of fibrous rootstocks furnish the Indian women material for their basket-making; hence the most familiar of its many names. The varied green of huckleberry bushes is everywhere. They are the common ground cover.
