Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1916-04-22
y HERE is lone tree in Lom-
hardy that accomplished what
a million men suffered and

H HERE is a lone tree in LON
hardy that accomplished what
million men suffered and
shaved to do. 1t stood in the
path of the great Simplon road, and
at the sight of its stately grace Ma
poleon turned the road from straight
line, that it's beauty might remain
mans heritage. 1t Is the cypress OF
Somma, and stands as a monument
to the greatness of one man and les.
son to those who would sacrifice
beauty to the god of gain, says Mark
Daniels, former superintendent of ma
tional parks, in American Forestry.
That Napoleons are scarce we
know, but are there SO few who
have not even enough of his vision
to see and appreciate the glory of a
magnificent forest or the eternal mira
Gle of a waterfall that they will con-
tinue to squander these birthrights by
indiscriminately hewing down the for
ests and damming up the streams?
There stands not one cypress, but
a grove of them, of SURPRISING beauty,
on our western coast. True, they are
not of that TALL stately variety, with
formal architectural lines; they are,
on the contrary, the exact or complete
reverse, for they are gnarled and
twisted; but they are beautiful in their
setting as anything that the eyes of
man may rest upon. There is but a
comparatively small area where they
still grow, and they are as distinct
among the other conifers of their re-
gion as are the Sequoia Gigantea
amongst the conifers of the Sierra
Nevada. In fact, in many respects
they remind one of the "big trees"
as they are called; for they have a
most distinct individuality which
makes them stand out alone.
They are to be found only in GER
tain locality, and their age is much
disputed. l have heard this estimated
to be from 100 to 1000 years, and
there seems to be no reconciling the
various contestants. However, the
question whether they have seen one
or twenty generations of time would
seem to be of small moment, in the
light of the fact that they are strug-
Cling through the last few years Of
one generation of American tourists.
But they seem to stand the storm OF
"oh's" and "ah's" with the same for
titude with which they resist the gales
and blasts of that beloved seacoast
on the very edge of which they spread
their spiraled roots. Growing down
to the actual verge of the sea, with
bare branches stretched out like arms
toward the land of the setting sun, the
question of whether they are the van
guard of an ancient western growth or
the stragglers of the great eastern for
ssts that were cut off by the Pacific
Ia almost always the first subject of
conjecture on the part of the tourist
Picturesque Shore Line.
About 1875 miles down the coast
FROM San Francisco lies the Bay of
Monterey, at the southern extremity
Of which the first cypress trees are
to be found. These trees possess more
the character of the cedar of Lebanon
than they do of any variety of cypress,
and are known to those who burden
their minds with genealogical detail
as the cupressus marcrocarpa. From
this point, which is known as the Del
Monte peninsula, and which forms the
southern shores of this wonderful sap
| phire bay, picturesque groves and oc-
casional isolated specimens are dotted
along the coast for some twenty-odd
miles to Lobos point.
Hero, again, the old adage, at never
rains but 1t pours,' is borne out by
the riot of exquisite beauty which con
fronts the observer on every side. Ma
ture seems to have concentrated on
this locality in the development of ex
tremes of picturesqueness and intens
| ity of color. The shore line is broker
and jagged. with here and there 9
stretch of ivory-colored sand beach
terminated and broken by precipitous
cliffs. agains. which the indigo ses
hurls its pearls and sheets of water
that are a pale jade green against the
lemon-colored horizon and the setting
sun. A motor trip along the coas
line gives ono the effect of kaleido
scopic change of coloring, the rapit
succession of which should vary with
the speed of the motor were 1t not fol
the unholy combination of the mod
ern six-cylinder machine with the free
| dom granted the tourist by the own