The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-06-28
GIANTS OF THE FOREST,
Something About the Biz Trees of Call
fornin.

Something About the DiR Trees of Calf
fornin.
A correspondent of the New York ,Sur
has been visiting the groves of trees in
California about which so much has beer
written on account of their immense size.
| He says:
1t was estimated by lumber mer.
chant that one of the big trees, "The
Mother of the Forest" contains 537, ,OOC
feet of lumber. This at $40 per thou.
sand would be worth $21, ,480. This
tree is 321 feet high, and 1877 feet to the
first limb The bark is twelve inches
thick, and the tree is eighty-six feet in
circumference at the base, and forty
three feet in circumference seventy feet
from the base.
In the Calaveras grove five men
worked twenty-five days boring a tree
down with pump augers. After boring
the tree until every fiber was severed it
still stood upright. To fall 1.-two days were
spent with ropes, and wedges driven in
with the butts of trees. Finally the
grand old monarch fell. after standing
the blasts of 5000 years. Then they
smoothed off the stump, and on the
fourth of July thirtytwo persons danced
on it. Our party, consisting of about
fifteen, chased around ON this stump,
but to me it was with painful feeling
1t was like dancing around the tomb of
the dead Napoleon yes, like dancing on
the fallen monument to dead god |!
This stump is twenty-eight feet across
three feet wider than New York build
ing lot-and sound to the center. 1t
would take sixty-four yards of carpet to
cover it. This tree was 302 feet high
higher than the dome of the capitol or
than Trinity steeple.
The "Father Of the Forest is another
grand old fallen monarch. This tree fell
many years ago. 1t was 375 feet high
and twenty eight feet thick. 1t being
hollow, we rode our horses into its hol-
low trunk eighty-two feet. The height
of the horseback entrance is ten feet.
The diameter of the trunk $50 feet from
the roots is ten feet four inches.
In the Mariposa grove we came to a
large hollow tree called the Keystone. +"
Eight of us rode our horses through it
at one time. 1t had been burned out
and lived in by the Indians, but still
looked fresh and vigorous at the top.
In the South Park grove,our party all
disappeared in big tree called the
Grand Hotel" the hollow trunk of
which will hold forty persons. Near
by is "Noah's Ark" now fallen, but
which measures ninety feet in circum-
ference and 800 feet in length, and just
beyond is an unnamed tree, in the hol-
low trunk of which sixteen horses can
stand.
How many of those big trees are
there !?
There are in California, within twenty
five miles of the Yosemite valley, five
groves of big trees. The Calaveras
grove, north of the Yosemite, contains
ninety-four trees the South Park grove,
six miles nearer the Yosemite, contains
1880 trees from ten to ninety feet in
circumference. The Tuolumne grove
contains thirty trees, and the Mariposa
700, making the total number of big
trees (.Sequoia gigantea) in existence
in the world 2,214.
Will the number of big trees increase?
There is no reason why they should
not, although I find only few young
ones growing. The fires run through
the woods every year, and this un-
doubtedly kills the little trees. The
seed from the big trees can be easily
gathered. Indeed, gathered, perhaps,
500 seeds and sent them to friends living
in different parts of the country.
How old are these trees?
counted the concentric rings on the
stump of big tree and all botanists
agree that each ring represents years
growth-and they numbered 3,S4O. SO
the tree was 3,840 years old. We find
many big trees from 1,500 to 1000 years
old. We even find pines, cedars and
balsams here from 500 to l, 500 years old.
The last is not strange to me, for 1 re-
member how guide once showed me
the elms in Oxford, England, and told
me they were upward of 700 years old.
The altitude of the big trees makes
them grow in almost perpetual snow.
On the first of June, when we could see
them cradling their wheat in the San
Joaquin valley, the frosty winds howled
through the big trees, the frozen sleet
frosted the limbs of the big trees, and
we defiled our horses down the jagged
side toward the Yosemite in
q foot of snow.