object of facilitating travel. It is not a very decided improvement on
nature, however, for the steps are too far apart for comfort.

Summer cottages are scattered along the trail, perched on the
hillside, and placed in the most advantageous position to gain a view
of the bay, or on slightly higher ground, where they peek over the
tops of the trees into the valley below.

After a stiff climb we reach the top of the last range of hills and
begin our descent into the valley, where Muir Woods nestles between
the hills at the foot of Mount Tamalpais, in the beautiful Sequoia
Cañon. We look away to the right and can see the heavy clouds envelop
the summit of the mountain, but the highest stands above the clouds,
and the sun touches its stately crest with golden splendor.

[Illustration: COMRADES]

The forest always has a weird fascination for me, with its soft
whisperings, as if the trees were confiding secrets to each other. One
can become intimately acquainted with it, and learn to love its quiet
solitude, only by living in or near it, and wandering at will through
its trackless, leaf-carpeted aisles. Your eyes must be trained to
constant watching, you must learn to be a close observer, to note the
flowers, vines, and tangled shrubbery that are seldom mentioned by
botanists, and your ear must be tuned to catch the elfin music that
is heard within the confines of the forest. You cannot travel a rod
under the trees without being watched by the small forest inhabitants,
who regard you with suspicion, and peer at you from under decaying
logs or leafy covert like self-appointed detectives.