The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-07-05
9W1stelIauG0us.
Big Trees of California-An Interesting
Description.

OehCLlptlou.,
So for as known at present, California
contains the largest trees in any part Of
the world. Thirty miles from the Yose.
mite valley are the Mariposa Big Trees
ono OF the twenty groves already dis.
covered in California they resemble
the species of cedar known as red wood
but botanists name them sequoias. They
are the oldest and most stupendous vege.
table products existing upon the globe
Of the twelve hundred in this grove, two
hundred are more than twelve feet in di.
ametor, fifty more than sixteen feet, and
six more than thirty feet. The PROSTATE
Monarch, lying upon the ground, leahess,
branchless, and partially consumed by
fire, is believed to have fallen fully one
hondred and fifty years ago. With the
bark on it, it must have been forty feet
in diameter. One tree has branch six
feet in thickness, parting from the stem
eighty feet above the ground Into a
cavity, burned in the side of another
standing tree, says a recent writer, ffteen
of us rode together, all sitting upon our
horses, in that black, novel chamber,
which occupies less than half the thick.
ness of the trunk. Through another
stcm lying upon the ground, fire has bored
like an augur, and our entire cavalcade
ride through it from end to end, as a
railway train goes through tunnel.
The largest standing tree is the Grizzly
Giant. Its bark is nearly two feet thick,
its diameter about thirty five feet, and its
height more than three hundred. If cut
off smoothly, fifteen horses could stand, or
sixteen couples dance upon the stump =
If the trunk were followed to a she'll, it
would contain more cubic feet than an
ocean steamer or man-of.war two hundred
and fifty feet long These monster trees
are the patriarchs Of the globe. Some
botanists date their birth far back OF ear
liest human history None estimate their
age at less than eighteen hundred years.
1t is impressive to see growtbs which be-
gan in the morning twilight of the world;
to look upon trees living to-day which
were living at the boginningof the Chris
tian era. Well, says Holmes:
"In fact, there is nothing that keeps its youth
So far as know-but q tree and truth"
| have seen cut, from the Big Trees,
pieces of bark twenty-five inches in thick
ness. Of rich mahogany tinge when
dressed with the plane, it looks like deli.
cate velvet or plush. 1t is very soft, and
ladies of the Pacific coas. often use frag-
ments for pincushions. Who says we
have no respect for antiquity? If I'm
perial C9'ar, dead and turned to clay,
may serve for stopping a crevice in tho
wall, why should We not cut into pincush.
ions these venerable relics of the earth's
childhood
The reader should not confound the
pine of Yosemite Valley with the Big
Trees or sequoias of which the Grizzly
Giant is one. The pines, like those Of
Washington Territory, are simply height,
slenderness, symmetery. The delicate
tracery of the branch is beautiful beyond
description but the trunk is comparative.
lysmall. The sequoias, though little taller,
are age, thickness, massiveness. One, in
the Calaveras Grove, was cut down by
boring with augurs aud saving the spaces