Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-07-21
THE MAMMOTH TREES.

MIA, under date OF May 14th, 1888, says:
ssI am in the midst of the Mammoth Grove
of MarILosa. On all sides of me are numerous
giants of the forest, varying from 20 to "a feet
in diameter, and from 215 to 325 feet high.
Sublime sight Each tree fills me with won-
der as l look at it. A glance at one of these
immense trunks conveys new idea OF the
magnifcence OF nature; ssglorious as the uni
verse on creation S morn is this grove. The
Titans and the gods fought with such trees as
these for clubs when tie attempt made to
carry Heaven by storm, as recorded in the
Grecian mythology. The trees high
that you must look twice before you can see
the top, and then you cannot comprehen d
how h Ugh they are until you have looked at
them from many points OF view and compared
them with the little pines in the vicinity,
which do not exceed 10 feet in diameter and
200 feet in height. No words, no exclama-
tions, no figures, no description can convey to
a person who has not seen these mammoths
the vivid impression of their sublime gran
deur, which fills and overwhelms the mind of
the beholder. But the idea, in its full force,
remains in the minn only while the eyes are
fixed upon the trees. The conception is too
great to be imprisoned in the brain, except
with the aid of vision door-keeper; and
while you have that YOU are delighted. L
could lie and look up for hours at these mighty
columns, which seem to threaten the heavens;
their sight fills my mind with rapid succes-
them poetic thoughts, but l cannot express
them. l feel as though am poet without
the means of expression, as though, if could
write what / feel, l should produce poem,
wherein the sun and planets would be tossed
about as / kick this gravel at my feet. Now
that look up these trees appear to be among
the greatest objects Of nature, and men are but
earthworms in comparison.
The grove is about half a mile wide and
three quarters of mile long, and it con tains
427 standing trees, which, in regard to dame
ter, may be classed as follows: tree meas
ures "a feet in diameter; measure 80 feet
each; l3 from 25 to 33 feet each; 90 from 20
to 25 feet each; 80 from 10 to 20 feet each in
diameter Total, "a trees above Is feet in
diameter. Remaining, 293 under 10 feet in
diameter.
One tree has fallen, and considerable por-
ton of it has been burned, but think it was
nearly 40 feet in diameter and 400 feet long.
This tree has been named the Sequoia Gil
gantea and is an evergreen. The tree has
the great peculiarly that it bears two kinds
of leaves. Those the young trees and
on the lower branches of large trees are
about fve-eighths of an inch long and an
eighth wide, and are set in pairs opposite to
each other, little stems. But the upper
branches of the large trees, which have borne
flowers, have little triangular leaves about an
eighth of an inch long, and these lie close
down to the stem. The cones not much
larger than hens egg, and their compare
lively small size reminds me of the eye of the
whale. The seeds are also very small, being
only about fourth of an inch long, sixth
wide, and almost as thin common writing
paper. The bark is reddish brown in color, of
a course, dry, stringy, elastic substance, and
very thick on the largest trees not less than
Is inches. The wood is soft, elastic, straight
grained, light, when dry, and red in color, and
it bears very close resemblance to red cedar,
except that the grain is not quite so even-
The wood is very durable, being, like the red
wood, almost imperishable, whether above or
below ground.
The Sequoin Gigantea is found only on the
Sierra Nevada Mountains il California, at
height of about 4, 500 feet above the level OF
the sea. 1t exists only in small groves, five
of which are known-three in this county,
one in Calaveras, and one in Tuolumne. These
three counties lite adjoining to each other;
and the five groves are all between 81 deg. 40
min. and SO deg. 10 min. of south latitude
This grove in which l now am is the largest,
and there are two other groves within mile OF
here, one containing So trees, and the other
with 35 trees. Tuolumne grove was discover
ed only few days ago. 1t contains 10 trees,
one or two of which said to be 35 feet In
diameter.
The Calaveras mammoth grove, to which l
made flying visit on my way hither, lies
north west from here, 50 miles distant In a
staight line, but considerably further by the
travel roads. This was the first discovered OF
the mammoth groves, is the most noted, and
attracts the greatest number of visitors. 1t
was first known to the whites when found by
some hunters in 1850, but the public attention
was not called to the place until 1904, when
one of the largest trees was cut down, and
the bark stripped from another to distance
of 1l6 feet from the ground. The tree which
was felIed was 80 feet in circumference and
:-b Eua lya6 Of
days cutting through it with large augers. On
the stump, which has been smoothed off, there
have been dancing-parties and theatrical per-
formances, and now there is a printiRg-office,
from which The Big-Tree Bulletin is issued.
The tree, which was stripped of its bark, con-
timed green and fiourishing for two years and
half, and did not begin to die until after
very hard frost in the Winter of l856-57.-
The bark ith some of the wood of the felled
tree, is now in the English Crystal Palace
There are in this grove ten trees 30 feet in di-
ameter, and 80 trees between Is and 30 feet;
thus making 90 over Is feet through, while
there are 134 of the same size in the large
grove of Mariposa. The latter grove has the
superiority in the number of its trees and the
beauty of its location, and also in having other
grand scenery in the vicinity; but the gener-
al impression among those who have seen both
groves, is that Calaveras has the largest and
tallest trees. / have adopted the meas ure-
ments made by others, which may be incor-
rect, but think the general impression right.
One of the Calaveras trees which is down
must have been $50 feet high and nearly 40
feet in diameter at the but. The Calaveras
grove is in little basin about two miles in
diameter, but the 92 large trees are close to-
gether, those furthest from the center OF the
group being scarcely more than 6O0 yaros
apart.
The Mariposa grove was discovered year
or more ago, and the smaller ones near u
,ro -. last Autumn.