The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-09-09
The Big Trees Ct California.

iOlloWinI entertaining account OF them:
A walk Of two or three hours enables orc
TO get thorough look at nc big trees. The
large ones are nil chri$;r"cd, and have
neat little boards inscribc.. with their names
affixed to their trunks. The level path
winds through the dense and beautiful un-
dergrowth, the dust and fine sand being its
only unpleasant feature. Lovely shrubs
and Towering wild plants carpet the grove ;
the willow, the fern, the larch, and the ha-
eel, wave billow-like in the soct wind n sea
o. bushy verdure the fir, lie spruce, and the
sugar pine, shoot ~ slcn1crly to the height
Of 200 feet and mo. NJ high, very
high above al tower t.v ;-,2mmoth trees.
The enormous trrp,5 = TO latter burst
forth i'll the thick forest y.Gtas with mas
sivc boldncss that storms admiration. Like
other colossal objects, they grow upon the
eye that begins by undertaking them. The
magnitccnce of the groves around the hotel
is something | hesitate 20 attempt to picture
with words. Without tic u, trees they
would inspire delight with TIC giants, they
are truly one of the woI :. 4. gonders. How
grand they seem at day-how wcirdly ma
jcstic by starlight. The voices Of the breeze
through their foliage, three hundred feet
overhead, is like mysterious night whs-
per from the sea, and floats the wind off
into the dam realm of religious awe that is
at once the reward and the mystery Of
solitude.
At night, from the porch OF the hotel, VIC
looked on the heavens "frettcG with golden
fire :" through a filmy lace Of leaves that
sighed in long, low cadences, and undu-
lated idly as if browsing off with other
living things. 1t was the grove with all its
glorious grOwth-thc big trees and their
imperial guard of honor taken as q whole
shat excited the deepest pleasure in our
minds, and requited the tolls Of the jour
ney over and over. Man has q passion, a
vcncration, for the forest tree. The Druid
seems less idolatrous than the worshippcr
of the sun. 1t is easy TO love an oak and
hard to love Il planet. The botanist out
lives and outruus the astronomer. All OF
which argues that the traveller who does
not study shrub, evergreen, and forest tree:
ar he winds over the world, knows nothing
Of or cares nothing about his capacity for
calm enjoyment. The big-trcc groves Of
California arc equally climax for the
naturalist and climax for him who wan-
dcrs to sec what is greatest and strangcst
III nature.
Standing for twenty centuries and more,
they have not escaped scars from so prodi-
gious conflict with the elements and the
savage. After reaching the height of be-
tween three and four hundred feet the
storms invariably tear off their tops, so that
the trunks Of all terminate with ragged
abruptncss. The camp-tircs of fifty gene
rations OF Indians have mutilatcd and
hlackcncd about three -fourths Of the giants,
many Of which have been hollow Tor ages,
and open to imminent danger from the
burning faggots left go often inside their
spacious shelter.
The big tree, where it cmergcs from the
ground, has an immense gnarly bulge, OF
girdlc Of knots, that add many feet 10 Its
circumference at the root. About four feet
above the ground the trunk cmcrgcs from
its huge, rough pedestal, and shoots straight
upward, shrinking III diameter about one
fifth, and tapcring very gradually to
It's splintcrcd capital. The ninety
three mammoth trees are intcrspcrscd i'll
groups Of two or three, at intervals OF
thirty, forty, and fifty yards, throughout a
space Of about fifty acres. Outside Of this
small tract no specimens OF it arc found,
except in three counties in California, dis
tant from CalaycrGs. Why they should
thus be congrcgated in four little groups In
the interior of California, and unknown
elsewhere, is singular, considering their
acc and hardness. They are found only
on the western slope Of the Sierra Nevada,
at elevations of from 1900 to 5000 feet
above the Pacific, and in q soil of peculiar
richness-not rank, black mold, but q
loose, unctious, brown mold, that, tlckled
with dry, yellow atom no larger ol
thicker than the tinicst fnger-nail OF the
tiniest baby, hurtlcs up into the air a
wooden tower thirty-three feet thick and
four hundred feet high.
We rambled through the grove several
times during our stay, and fearing that the
measurements given by printed dcscrip-
tons were exaggerated, applied for our
selves the most careful tests. We paced
around the trees, and measured them with
line and rule. We found the original
figures to be accurate. The trees do not look
to be over 800 feet tall, but by measuring
those that have fallen, the miscalculation OF
the eye in this respect also is corrected.
''Thc Father Of the Forest" which lies
prone, must have been 450 feet high. The
trunk, as it now semains, exceeds 300 1cct
in length, and at its broken top 1t is SIX
teen feet in diameter. A stairway con-
tanning twenty-one steps conducts to the
top Of the PROSTATE giant. A lofty hole IN
it's side admits man on horseback, and for
one hundred and twenty eight feet one can
ride erect through its hollow trunk. tried
it on q mcdium-sized horse, sat straight Ill
the saddle, and determined not to duck my
head. My hat barely grazed the black roo1
of the strange causeway in, one place.
Elsewhere there was plenty of play 1ol'
perpendicular equestrianism. Four team
sters, mounted on large horses, came to
"do" the riding exploits while we were
near at hand. They were so delighted with
their complete success that they went OH
whooping and on the gallop.
The best test object in the grove is what
is known rs "the stump of the big tree.
and an accompanying section OF the trunk
that lies near at hand. This tree was solid
to the core. In 1853 five men, employing
large augurs, worked industriously Tor
twenty-five days to fell it. The giant that
welded to this vandalism was thirty-one
feet through, and over three hshadred feet
high. The stump was planed off on top
and enclosed in neat summer-house with
dome and numerous windows.
Around the interior of the summer
house runs bench for loungers.
The stump affords ample room
for thirty-two dancers. Dramatic per-
formances have been given on it, and IN
1858 seventy copies of the Big lree b"',
letin were published there. The section OF
the trunk outside is twenty feet long, ana
its smooth summit is attained by STAIR