Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/290

284 is a shrub deserving of mention. It grows to the height of six feet, in a single, thorny, green stem, and bears at the top a bunch of broad leaves, resembling those of the white maple. When encountered in dark thickets it is sure to make itself felt, if not seen. Add to all that has gone before, great ferns—from two to fourteen feet in height, with tough stems, and roots far in the ground—and we have the earth pretty much covered from sun and light.

These are the productions, in general, of the most western forests of Oregon. When we try to penetrate such tropical jungles, we wonder that any animals of much size—like the elk, deer, bear, panther, and cougar—get through them. Nor do all these inhabit the thickest portions of the forest, but the elk, deer, and bear keep near the occasional small prairies which occur in the mountains, and about the edges of clearings among the foot-hills, except when driven by fear to hide in the dark recesses of the woods. In the fall of the year, when the acorn crop is good in the valley between the Coast and Cascade mountains, great numbers of the black bear are killed by the farmers who live near the mountains.

As this region just described is, so is the whole mountain system of Western Oregon and Washington. Along the eastern slope of the Coast Range, around Puget Sound, along the Columbia highlands above a point forty miles from its mouth, and on the western slope of the Cascades, the same luxuriance of growth prevails. Indeed, nearly all the trees enumerated—the black spruce and scrub pine are exceptions—belong equally to the more eastern region. And the same of the shrubs.

But in this more eastern portion grow some trees