The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-03-23

I" HERE is lone tree in LON
hardy that accomplished what
million men suffered and
shaved to do. It stood in the
path of the great Simplon road, and
at the sight of it's stately grace Ma
poleon turned the road from a straight
line, that it's beauty might remain
mans heritage. It is the cypress OF
Somma, and stands as 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
magnificent forest or the eternal mira
Gle of 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
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
most distinct individuality which
makes them stand out alone.
They are to be found only in GER
tain locality, and their age is much
have heard this estimated
to be from 100 to 1000 years, and
there seems to be no reconclling 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 or
"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
ests that were cut off by the Pacific
is almost always the first subject of
conjecture on the part of the tourist.
Picturesque Shore Line.
About 1925 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 &C.
casional isolated sfecimens are dotted
along the coast for some twenty-odd
miles to Lobos point.
Here, again, the old adage, ''1t never
rains but it 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 broken
and jagged, With here and there a
stretch of ivory-colored sand beach,
terminated and broken by precipitous
cliffs, against which the indigo sea
hurls its pearls and sheets of water
that are pale jade green against the
lemon colored horizon and the setting
sun. A motor trip along the coast
line gives one the effect of a kaleido-
scopic change OF coloriag. the rapid
succession of which should vary with
the speed of the motor were it not for
the unholy combination of the mod
ern six-cylinder machine with the free
dom granted the tourist By the own