Land-saving Trees Our eyes might well be turned to California
for another reason than a longshore strike, though the reason is also longshore. One of the little promontories on the coast there is a locus classicus for the work of trees in preventing coast erosion. Where Monterey pines were left there the land juts out into the sea. The cause of most headlands is the superior hardness of the rock in that place. The sea has lost its battle against the granite or igneous rock and won against the sandstone or clay. The wood has done even better than the stone, for the pine-headed promontory has actually advanced into the sea. The sand blows behind the trunks into a wall, a glacis, up which the tide can advance a shorter and yet shorter distance. A gorgeous photograph of the leader of the pine forces against the invading Pacific was shown last week at a Forestry Exhibition ; and a lyrical description of its prowess delivered by Mr. St. Barbe Baker, the founder of the organization, christened the Men of the Trees. One of the prettiest international exchanges was the saving of some of the immense redwood trees of California by British contributions. The Americans have been generous in saving historic sites in England. This was some small return ; and the particular redwoods in question were quite a thousand years older than our oldest stone buildings.
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