Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-04-10
Giant Trees of California.

One Of the most interesting things
we saw during q visit to England,
made a few ear ago, was a part of
the bark Of the Mother of the For
G +" q Of the giant trees of Califor-
MA. The bark was q foot and q half
ntck, and had been stripped from the
trunk Of the tree to the hight of more
than a hundred feet. -Four months
were occupied in its removal; every
piece as IL was cut down vas carefully
numbered, and it has been put up
exactly as it originally grew.
The inside Of this bark is fitted up as
a room, with table and chairs. "Take
the table and chairs out of the ROOM"
said the guide, ''and it will hold one
hundred aud fifty persons, standing
up?' As you look up the inside or
the outside, and think that the portion
you gaze upon is only one-quarter Of
the whole hight, you may form some
idea of what this great tree is as it
still stands in its own native forest.
We have been surprised lately to
learn that this tree, and the six hum
dred other giant trees in that forest,
have sprung from very tiny seed; but
so says Carleton" the Well-knOwn
writer, whose statements are true as
they r interesting. Carleton has
recently been making "a Journey
round the world" and of course when
he reached California from China, he
went to sSRShe "big trees" and here
is a part of his exceedingly interesting
description:
1.-THE great elm on Boston Common
is between six and seven feet in diam
afar. hrrf hn.a awO -1- En-lu.T 49,
the smallest of which is twelve feet in
diapeter, and the largest thirty-three.
One which fell many years ago, from
which the bark has crumbled, is now
thirty-three feet in diameter, and you
can walk two hundred and fifty feet
along that portion of the trunk which
has not yet decayedl We might heW
from this single trunk the hull of a
ship of greater tonnage than the
Santa Maria, in which Columbus
crossed the OceanI One larger even
than the MayfiOwer of the Pilgrimsl
Sit down and look at the monster
called the grizzly great Its ninety
feet up to the first limb, which is six
feet and four inches in diameter! A
limb one hundred and thirty feet from
the ground has been broken of thirty
feet from the body of the tree, and the
fallen portion lies before us on the
ground, eleven feet in circumference,
OF nearly four feet in diameter!
There are thirteen in our party, and
we all rode into the burned cavity of
one tree still standing, and sat there
upon our horses, with room for six or
eight mOrel We rode through the
hollow trunk of another fallen tree
thirty feet, as if it were a section of
Thames Tunnel or of a tubular rail
way bridge.
at is wonderful, but wonder be-
comes amaZeGaont when we look upon
the cones PRO dced by the trees, and
find them tobe not larger than a hens
egg, and the seeds a mere speck. 1t
would take a dozen of them TO weigh
down an apple-seed. Yet unfolded in
thes little feathery cell which lies in
my hand, which my gentlest breath
ing will send Whirling through the
air, is another forest monarch as
mighty as those around me. Drop it
in the soil, press it beneath my feet,
and, a thousand or fifteen hundred
years hence, it too shall be just such a
wonder as this, within whose trunk
we might make u home. There
are mightier sermons in these trees
than ever were uttered by human
lips. A thousand or fifteen hundred
years ago they were just thrusting
their spires from the ground. What
tides of human history have rolled
away since then! They do not set US
to thinking of what God has done.
While they remain they will be the
wonder of the WOrd.n