Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-01-03
AVENUE OF ClED[)ARS.
A1'aW''o3nqerfuT't Railso al That hat
Leads From Toxic to Mike, 4
Forty Miles of Trees. Imposing
,h In Their Grandeur. !,

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Tho Japanese whom they cntombcd,
at Nikko, Iyeyasu. one of their greatest
statesmen and heroes, the, founder Of
tho Tokugawa dynasty OF military rul-
crs, whose power camsto an end only
With tho revolution Of 1858. after last
ing three csnturios, planted better than
they know when they built in almost
straightroad from iTokioto tho sucrcd
ground a. NIkkos lined tho greater di,
TANGO onjcithor- hand with pines and
ccdars, whose fragrant breath and giant
cops ps-fumo and shadow the path.
Since ihou 800 years~.havo come and
gone, sdaihg yOut by year ring growths,
till npw these forest giants guard tho
wayy mat ro and vigorous, rs II ago
only added to thcir strength. 70 This
Avenue oficedars reaches almost forty
miles of the way from Toxic to Mike.
have seon avcnu of oak ut Windsor
and Buckingham maybe two milos Or
oNch 'VuS, uut mum VI ~ iouuNuJt
graded level, about twenty feet wide,
cuTbid at both sidc',, with living water
runniug, and : with ,steeply slipping
bapks from six TO twelve feet high, and
upon these in an endless procession tho
great ccdars of Japan. wondor if tho
world elsewhere can mitch it.
Noble trees impress most people;
with mo, mover before had l felt tho
dignity, tho majesty, that trees like
those could give rs an expression of
human emotion. Tho desire which tho
descendants and successors of tho great
Iycydsu had to cmbody IN fitting way
thoir reverence for his-to thcm-god-
like powers could not possibly have
been displayed in q grauder manner
than is scen to-day in this wonderful
avenue of ccdars. They stretch. along
mile hitter milo, sometime, only singly
in straight limo close together, tho
swelling bases quito touching each
other, aud thon they stretch out in
couples aud trplots. Often twin trees
seem TO spring from ono base. No
whore is there nbsolutcncss of straight
line, but every where that delightful un-
balanced symmctry peculiar to Japanese
art aud which Nature only tcachos. p.
The cedars vary in diameter from two
feet to six feet. The bark =, Ia reddish,
thin and close set in rather narrow
parallel strips. The trunks are strAigh,
and uniformly round, reaching so to 7s
feet in height before branching much,
and roaching M altitude of 100 to 1SC
feet. Tho branches nrc not lirgo III
PROPORTION to the trunks, so that tree:
stand close together, interlacing thcil
shade.
We entered this avenue from til,
railway station. Utsu-no-miya, Mt abou
3 o'clock in tho aftcrn Don, having ar
ranged for jun rilsi- shas and extra msi
to pull us all the way to Nikko, cx
| peCliub " IcuCn lucEc uclOTc uark, Du
, it was nine Japanese ri, equal TO abou
% English miles, and moderate up
grade oil the way, and it was Q clocl
mt night before wo reached Nikko.
Solemn and imposing indeed was tn
shadowed way during the afternoon
hours and short twilight, but doubl
| solemn rs night settled down and moth
t ing could be distinguished. The jim
riki-shnmen seemed to feel their wa
with their feet; paper lantern with
l tallow candle lighted the space that
FREELY would. Tho banks of the road
| way were quite above our heads, bi
one after another We could sec the grcs
, trunks of tho ccdars leading up till los
in the upper darkness. Every now an
then tho ''riky'' mon would starlc F,
by ala" then "sh," IS ,rya," I'll
expression Of warming, and thss the, -
gray ghost 800 &,
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