Consider how much of this storm-ploughing must be done in the forests of the world in a single year, and that this has been going on ever since trees grew big on the face of the earth. In a storm in the woods of California, Muir heard trees falling at the rate of one every two or three minutes. And, as I said, it is precisely the trees that can do the most ploughing--the older and larger trees--that are most apt to go down before the wind. Younger trees will bend while older and stiffer trees hold on to the last. Before a mountain gale, pines, six feet in diameter, will bend like grass. But when the roots, long and strong as they are, can no longer resist the prying of the mighty lever--the trunk with its limbs and branches--swaying in the winds, down go the old giants with crashes that shake the hills. After a violent gale the ground is covered thick with fallen trunks[7] that lie crossed like storm-lodged wheat. [7] Muir: "Mountains of California." There are two trees, however, Muir says, that are never blown down so long as they continue in good health. These are the juniper and dwarf pine of the summit peaks. "Their stout, crooked roots grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagle's claws, while their lithe, cord-like branches bend round completely, offering but slight holds for winds, however violent." AT THE STORM FESTIVAL WITH MR. MUIR Trees were among Muir's best friends, and he spent a large part of his life chumming with them. What do you think that man did once? He was always doing such things. He climbed a tree in a terrific gale so that he could see right into the heart of the storm and watch everything that was going on. Just hear him tell about it: "After cautiously casting about I made choice of the tallest of a group of Douglas spruces that were growing close together like a tuft of grass, no one of which seemed likely to fall unless the rest fell with it. Being accustomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I experienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one, and never before did I enjoy so noble an exhilaration of motion." And such odors! These winds had come all the way from the sea, over beds of flowers in the mountain meadows of the Sierras; then across the plains and up the foot-hills and into the piny woods "with all the varied incense gathered by the way." [Illustration: THREE KINDS OF SEED THAT THE WIND SHAKES FREE Here are three kinds of seed adapted for dispersal by the shaking action of the wind.] Though comparatively young, these trees--the one Mr. Muir climbed into and its neighbors--were about 100 feet high, and "their lithe, brushy tops were rocking and swirling in wild ecstasy." In its greatest sweeps the top of Muir's tree described an arc of from twenty to thirty degrees, but he felt sure it wouldn't break, and so he proceeded to take in the great storm show.