Grandeur of an Alaskan Forest by Charles Warren Stoddard

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 23, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 37.

Grandeur of an Alaskan Forest.

By Charles Warren Stoddard

In an undiscovered country—so it seemed to us—we came to a smooth and sandy strip of shore and landed safely. But a few paces from the lightly breaking ripples was the forest—and such a forest! There were huge trees, looking centuries old, swathed in thick blankets of moss, and the very moss gray with age. Impenetrable depths of shadow overhead, impenetrable depths of litter under foot. Log had fallen upon log crosswise and at every conceivable angle. Out of the fruitful dust of these deposed monarchs of the forest sprang a numerous progeny—lusty claimants, every one of them—their foliage feathery and of the most delicate green, being fed only by the thin sunshine that sifts through the dense canopy, supported far aloft by the majestic columns that clustered about us. Under foot the russet moss was of astonishing depth and softness, but one walks with care upon it, for the foot breaks through the thick matting that has in many cases spread from log to log, hiding treacherous traps beneath. The ferns luxuriate in this sylvan paradise, and many a shrub, new to us, bore flowers that blushed unseen until we made our unexpected and perhaps unwelcome appearance.—Charles Warren Stoddard, in S. F. Chronicle.