The Great Oregon Forests.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1902
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Pacific
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/276; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1275/viewcontent/243.pdf

DO The Pacific Monthly Volume VII J V N E , I 9 O 2 Number G THE GREAT OREGON FORESTS THE far-famed Oregon forests cover all the western section of the State, the mountains as we'll as the lowlands, with the exception of a fe 2 THE PACIFIC MONTHLY the Cascades, forming there the main bulk of the forest in many places. It is also common along the borders of the open spaces in Willamette valley. In the southern portion of the State the sugar pine, which is the king of all the pines and the glory of the Sierra forests, occurs in considerable abundance in the basins of the Umpqua and Rogue Rivers, and it was in the Umpqua hills that this noble tree was first discovered by the enthusiastic botanical explorer, David Douglas, in the year 1826. This is the Douglas for whom the noble Douglas spruce is named, and many a fair blooming plant also, which will serve to keep his memory fresh and sweet as long as beautiful trees and flowers are loved. The Indians of the lower Columbia river watched him with lively curiosity as he wandered about in the woods day after day, gazing intently on the ground or at the great trees, collecting specimens of everything he saw, but, unlike all the eager fur-gathering strangers they had hitherto seen, caring nothing about trade. And when at length they came to know him better, and saw that from year to year the growing things of the woods and prairies, meadows and plains were his only object of pursuit,' they called him "The Man of Grass" a title of which he was proud. He was a Scotchman, and first came to this coast in the spring of 1825, under the auspices of the London Horticultural Society, landing at the mouth of the Columbia after a long, dismal voyage of eight months and fourteen days. During this first season he chose Fort Vancouver, belonging to the Hudson Bay Co., as his headquarters, and from there made excursions into the glorious wilderness in every direction, discovering many new species among the trees as well as among the rich underbrush and small herbaceous vegetation. It ...