they had been pressed. On the under side of the spray is a cluster of small cones. The bark is thin, and peels off in long strips, which are used by the Indians to make matting, and a kind of cloth used for mantles to shed the rain. It is also used by them to roof their houses, make baskets, etc. Altogether, it is the most useful tree of the forest to the native.
Hemlock spruce (Abies Canadensis) is next in abundance near the coast. It grows much taller than the cedar, often to one hundred and fifty feet, and has a diameter of from six to eight feet. The color is lighter, and the foliage finer, than that which grows in the Atlantic States; and the appearance of the tree is very graceful and beautiful.
Another tree common to the coast is the Oregon yew (Taxus Brevifolia). It is not very abundant; grows to a height of thirty feet, and flourishes best in damp woods and marshy situations. The wood is very tough, and used by the Indians for arrows. When much exposed to the sun, in open places, the foliage takes on a faded, reddish appearance. It bears a small, sweet, coral-red berry, of which the birds are very fond.
A few trees of the red fir (Abies Douglassii) occur in the Coast Mountains, but are not common; also, an occasional white spruce (Abies Taxifolia), and north of the Columbia small groves of a scrub pine (P. Contorta) appear on sandy prairies near the sea-beach. It grows only about forty feet high, and has a diameter of two feet.
Of the broad-leaved, deciduous trees, which grow near the coast, the white maple (Acer Macrophyllum) is the most beautiful and useful. It grows and decays rapidly—the mature tree attaining to the height of eighty feet, and a diameter of six feet; then decaying
