The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-13 00:00:00

'REES IN CALIFORNIA,

It has been EfTpposed (says the San Francisco Alta),
that the Sierra sequoias, or big trees of California, are
confined to a few small and isolated groves. It was
discovered last Summer that a body of big-tree timber
in. Fresno county is not properly- a grove, but a forest
extending for not less than 70 miles in a north-west
and south-eastward direction, with a width in some
places of ten miles and intei rupted only by the deep
canons which cut across the general course of the
forest. Different persons have traced the forest from
the basin of the Tub e River in latitude 36deg. 20miu.
across those of the Kaweah and Kings-to that of thr
San Joaquin. The elevation has not been carefully
measured, but is supposed to vary from 4,0001 t. to
6,000 ft. Unlike the groves further north

mainly, and in- soul,

-consists _ „ _ Le—Plice'salmost excit, :eljr;
of the big trees, and th*. e!are also a multitude in all
the ages of growth, corn just sprouting and others'
saplings only two or thre ; feet through. The largest
standing tree as yet measured is 40ft. in diameter;
charred stump—the tree itself havinf disappeared—,
measures 41ft. across.- A tree 4ft. in diameter, 4ft.''
above the ground, is precisely the same thickness 601
higher. A fallen trunk is hollow throughout its
length, and the hole is large enough to drive a horse
and buggy 721 t. in it as in a tunnel. The wood
similar in general character to the Coast sequoia, or,,
common redwood, straight in grain, splitting freely
!even enough in grain for furniture, and far superior to
oak in its keeping qualities in positions exposed
to alterations of moisture. The Sierra sequoia does
not throw up sprouts from its stump as does the red-
wood, and can therefore be felled out more readily. It
was wise in Congress to make a reservation for plea-
sure purposes of the Mariposa Grove, which is near
4-Yosemite, small and conveniently accessible to tourists
~by the present routes of travel; but the Tulare-Fresno
forest—it is all in those two counties —cannot be con-
.verted into a public reservation. Numerous saw-mills
Iwill be built on its line, and flumes will carry the
-lumber down to the consumers.

"A • SWEET THIN XS DEADLINESS."
An improved kind of harpoon which has lately come
into fashion among those employed in the whale
fishery at the entrance of the Waranger fiord on the
coast of Norway appears to be "a sweet thing in
deadliness." It consists, says Consul-General Sir John
Rice Crowe, in his commercial report on Norway,
lately issued, of a harpoon with two movable barbs
like the claws of an anchor, one on each side. The
harpoon is projected from a swivel gun fixed on the
bows of the vessel. The claws or barbs lie flat
against the harpoon while in the gun and during
its progress through the air and entrance into the
body of the fish; but no sooner is the line attached
to the harpoon hauled upon, or the fish takes a
start, than the claws or barbs expand, and become
fixed at an angle of 45 deg. on each side, which effec-
tually precludes the possibility of the harpoon being
withdrawn from the body of the fish; in addition to
this, by some contrivance or other, a capsule contain-
ing an explosive substance is concealed in the harpoon,
which by another ingenious contrivance explodes,
causing instant death; the animal is then towed
ashore by a steamer to the factory, where the process
of utilization commences. By this plan a fish is never
lost after the harpoon has once entered the carcass;
and the struggle seldom lasts above a few minutes after
the fish is struck before death ensues.—Pall Mall
Gazette.

this forest I Folir..er
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