The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-10-30
ON THE PACIFIC COAST
BY FULTON S. WHITE.

, of the world All day long our train Is
lodging in and out and around curves,
passing through great tunnels, some of
which are one and one-half miles long;
making horseshoe curves where the Ia
| dies in the rear car may flirt with the
engineer, and climbing the mountains,
one round as it were at time, until we
could look down under us ana see the
roadbed over which we had just passed,
looking like a great serpent winding its
way gradually up the mountains. The
/ top once reached and we descend into
another valley only to have to climb out
again the same way.
l might dwell here and write RACES of
what l saw of the villages rivers, noun
| tains. farms and orchards we passed, but
must pass on But before doing so let
me say that the Southern Pacific Rail-
| road company have published booklets
with fine cuts of much of this scenery,
and 1t would well repay our young people
to write and get these booklets. Your
/ nearest railroad agent can tell you how
to get them The general passenger
agent at San Francisco. If you write him,
will tell you how to procure these book
lets.
But I pass on and meet other scenes,
and again ! am permitted to stop off and
| take a side trip out to beautiful Santa
/ cruz. Here take on sunday morning
| the narrow gauge line to the great red
wood forest, stopping for most of the
| day at Big Tree station. Here | met an
| other grand sight, which completely fas-
| einated me and held me for hours admir-
| ing these giants of the forest. Here are
! grand old trees computed TO be over
three thousand years old standing in
groups and singly measuring over 100
feet in circumference, ana towering their
heads over 800 feet toward the blue sky.
! low grand are these great sentinels Of
the forest, which have stood here for
eenturiesl As one stands at the foot of
these monsters and looks up he can
realize how small man is.
Here we find one of the unwr1tten his
tories of our country; it is here that in
some age. of the world that some pre-
historic race seems to have carried on
tannery-some of the large trees were cut
and watts hewn out. some of which yet
remain in a good state of preservation.
The stumps, too from which the trees
were cut still remain and will for centu-
ries to come. as the wood is slow to de-
cap. The stumps, as well as the work
on the watts, show that some very crude
implement was used in the work. Per-
haps it was done in the age when stones
were used for axes; who can tell? Many
of these monster trees have been chris
tened and dedicated to some of our great
statesmen and military heroes. l wish
l had time and space to speak singly OF
! old Daniel Webster" Lincoln"
Grant" Garfield" "Blaine," "Cleve-
land" Harrison Mckinley and
Roosevelt" but I cannot, and will only
make mention of Fremont" r med for
the great Pathfinder. In this old tree
Fremont had his winter quarters. The
windows which he sawed OFT for light
are nearly grown over, but their shap is
plainly visible.
Here we find picture unsurpassed any,
where, perhaps, in the world, a picture
no artist can do justice to. The little
narrow guage road runs right through
this forest, following close along the foot
of mountain, and on the other side Is
a basin. This little road, like ribbon
and as straight as an arrow, lies at the
foot of the mountain, and on the noun
tain are many of these great trees, so
! that the road is more than 500 feet be-
low the tops of these trees The trees
are eyergreens and shade the line, but
now and then a ray of sunshine breaks
through and sends a golden light across
the road, which adds greatly to the
beauty of the scene.
I spent more than an hour here, and
| as l left | cast back a longing look and
wondered "Will l ever behold you
again?" We read the groves were Gods
| first temples and this certainly has ref
| erence to these great redwood groves. |
! wish | had time to say more of them,
| but I must pass on. This little narrow
gauge road, about fifty miles long from
Santa Cruz to San Hose, is wonder,
| as twenty-five miles of 1t Is tunnels, the
longest of which one and quarter miles
! in length. We rrn out of one tunnel,
| cross little strea,y e light, and back
we go into another. and o 1t is for miles.
Here at Santa Cruz ] found what to
me was a new industry, great powder
| mill, where gun powder is manufactured.
E, ere in tho forest is the ladrone tree.
which makes the finest charcoal for the
use in manufacturing powder. This is
branch of the great Dupont PoWuer
| company. This ladrone tree, which sheds
! its bark annually, but never its leaves
/ another of natures curiosities.
| Passing from Santa Cruz and the big
| trees we come next to the great Santa
Clara valley and to beautiful San Hose.
Here is a city as pretty as any picture,
| and a place where much of interest may
be seen, situated right in the center of
| the great Santa Clara valley, now the
greatest garden seed producing valley OF
| the world. | came here to see tire 5000
acres of vegetable seeds growing and be-
ing harvested, and spent two days here,
and will have more to say of this later.
| The grandest side trip from San Hose
is eight miles out through the mountains
to what Is called Alum Rock. Here again
we find much of interest and beautiful
park Leaving San Hose my next stop
was San Francisco.
But l will not go further now. only to
say that never in all my life have | had
such a pleasant and instructive trip l
have been completely charmed, elated
and carried away with these grand