The Placer herald., 1856-05-24
CIRCuM.

Mother Of the Forest. 1928 80
Father of the Forest, alen) $50 trac' BILE 30O) 112
Husband and Wife ....... 25O (each) GO
Hercules .......... ..... 323 "
Hermit. t................... 3ZO oO
Mother and Son. 800 (unlted) 93
Siamese Twins and Guardian 300 so
Old Maid aid...............2 260 60
Adde and Mary.......... 800 65
Uncle Jones Cabin. ...... 800 IS
Pride of the Forest ... 280 GO
Beauty Of the Forest. ... 800 60
The Two Sentnels. ...... 300 60
The Old Fell. l............. 26O 60
Empire ........,......'. Z6o oo
The "Big Tree" was felled some years AGO
about seven feet from the ground, by boring
with large augers and saving the space be-
tween. 1t then took huge wedge and bat
toring ram to make it fall. The bark is
stripped and taken away for exhibition.
The stump has been smoothed for a dane
inc floor and would hold four sets of dancers.
1t took five men twenty-five days to fell it..
1t measures ninetv-six feet in circumference,
the solid wood being twenty-five feet in
diameter. On the body Of the tree a house
has been built, and two ten-pin alleys, eighty
one feet long, are easily accommodated.
The "Mners' Cabin is named from a
cavity in the trunk seventeen feet across the
entrance and forty feet high. The "Mother
of the Forest" has been stripped of the bark
for 100 feet, and by wooden pins set in you
can 90 to where the bark begins. Though
stripped in 1854, the tree has now a full and
new supply of foliage.
The ''Father of the Forest" has long been
flat upon the ground. The roots extend
high in the air, and you can see the enor
NOUS surface it covered when standing. 1t
is followed by action of fire for 200 feet or
more. A spring of water wells up inside,
and for twenty-five feet or more it was three
feet deep. In falling the old gentleman hit
one Of his sons, ten feet thick, and knocked
him endways You walk upon the trunk as
though on one-story house. The father and
mother are Immediately surrounded by "a
children, all thriving and lusty, the youngest
not less than twelve feet in diameter.
"IIercules" is the noblest standing tree
Of the grove, carving his size for 100 feet
or more above the butt. Other trees have
their peculiarities, but | have not time to
specify. A few were named by parties from
Sacramento. There are ninety altogether Of
this species, differing entirely from those
about them, both in color and feeling Of the
bark, as also in size. Neither on your ap-
proach to the grove, or beyond, outside Of
the rim of the saucer containing them, are
any Others to be found. For near 1000
years those heavy monarchs have fourished,
isolated from their kindred and sheltered
from sight The burnt trunks and broken
heads some Of them exhibit show what ee
mental conflicts they have sustained, while
the lesser growth Of trees about them indi-
cate some saving property in their thick,
spongy bark.
The "horsebacE ride" through the trunk
Of one tree, about sevcnty-fve feet, was eX
citing. Our two carriage horses were put
through, ourselves upon them one at a time
-oue of them measuring sixteen hands high.
There were two or three infants, say fifteen
feet high only, growing in the grove, The
seed were very small and fiat. Cones. young
and old, containing them, were abundant.
Like the Cave no description is adequate
to give one more than faint description Of
the immensity Of the trees. They are SO
symmetrical you cannot in looking at them
realize they are so tall, and the more often
YOU walk around to measure or sight them,
the larger they seem.
Mine host Mr.. Davis, keeps fine house,
and the eating department exceled anything
found on the route. Mr.. Haines, one of the
proprietors of the grove, is the agent of the
Pacific Express Co, at Murphys and will
give tourists all the information they NAV
desire,
The temperature at the trees at morning,
noon and night was respectively 81 deg, G3
deg, and 80 deg. May lst there was light
fall Of snow, and by the 1st Of June it will be
milder and the better time to make the tour.
TABLE MouNTAIN.-We left the Grove on
Thursday, were three hours driving down,
enjoying the company of body Of water
conveyed by fnme, ditch, tunnel and natural
ravine, pleasing and dashing at furious rate,
Illustrating the way the "water comes down
from Lodore." Left for Columbia-four
hours-descending fifteen hundred feet to
Abby's Ferry across the Stanislaus and
climbing an ascent of equal hight the other
side. The hospitalities of this place were
boundless, and in company of a numerous
troupe we visited Table Mountain, famed
for its rich deposites of gold-the surface
covered with basaltic rock-and from its
hight af1ording one of the grandest views in
the country. Up the Stanisaus the "Pali-
sades" look as formidable as those upon the
Hudson-away to the south interminable
hills and deep valleys repose, while northward
Columbia, Springfield and Shaw's Flat lie
spread out among arteries and veins of
water bitches, canals and fumes. Table
Mountain extends forty miles, and the entire
length is stakei off for mining. Tunnels