The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-11-20
Se0u0ia Trees In California,

ern groups have been counted. Those
of the Calaveras number twelve or thir-
teen hundred !; in the Tuolumne and
Merced groups there is less than one
hundred in the well-known Mariposa
grove, about six hundred ; and in the
North Kings River grove, less than
half as many but the Frenso group,
the largest congregation of the north,
occupies an area of three or four square
miles.
The average stature attained by the
big tree under favorable conditions is
perhaps about 275 feet, with a diameter
of twenty feet. Few full.grown speci-
mems fall much short OF this, while
many are twenty-five feet in diameter
and nearly 800 feet high. Fortunate
trees, 80 situated as to have escaped the
destructive action of fire, are occa-
sionally found measuring thirty feet in
diameter, and very rarely one that is
much larger.
Yet 80 exquisitely harmonious are
even the very mightiest Of these mon-
archs in all their proportions and cir.
cumstances, there never is anything
overgrown or huge-looking about them,
not to say monstrous and the first ex'
clamation on coming upon group for
the first time is usually, "See what
beautiful trees !" Their real godlike
grandeur in the meantime is invisible,
but to the loving eye it will be mani
tested sooner or later, stealing slowly on
the senses like the grandeur Of Niagara,
or Of some lofty Yosemite dome. Even
the mere arithmetical greatness is never
guessed by the inexperienced as long as
the tres is comprehended from little
distance in one harmonious view. When,
however, we approach 80 near that only
the lower portion of the trunk is seen,
and walk round and round the wide
bulging base, then we begin to wonder at
their vastness, and seek measuring rod.
Sequoias bulge considerably at the
base, yet not more than is required for
beauty and safety and the only reason
that this bulging is 80 often remarked
as excessive is because so small section
of the shaft is seen at once. The real
taper of the trunk. beheld as unit, is
perfectly charming in its exquisite fine
ness, and the appreciative eye ranges the
massive columns, from the swelling mus.
cular iustep to the lofty summit dissolv-
ing in a crown of verdure, rejoicing in
the unrivaled display of giant grandeur
and giant loveliness.
About hundred feet or more OF the
trunk is usually branchless, but it's
massive simplicity is relieved by the
fluting bark furrows, and loose tufts and
rosettes of slender sprays that wave
lightly on the breeze and cast fecks of
shade, seeming to have been pinned on
here and there for the sake of beauty
alone.
The young trees wear slender, simple
branches all the way down to the ground,
put on with strict regularity, sharply as
piring at top, horizontal about halfway
down, and dropping in handsome curves
at the base. By the time the sapling is
five or six hundred years old, this spiry,
feathery, juvenile habit merges into the
firm rounded dome form of middle age,
which in turn takes on the eccentric
picturesqueness of old age. No other
tree in the Sierra forests has foliage 30
densely massed, or presents outlines 80
firmly drawn and so constantly subordi.
nate to special type. A knotty, angu-
lar ungovernable-looking branch eight
or ten feet thick may often beseen push
ing out abruptly from the trunk, as if
sure to throw the outline curves into
confusion, but as soon as the general
outline is approached it stops short, and
dissolves in spreading, cushiony bosses
of law-abidinC sprays, just as if every
tree we're growing underneath some huge
invisible bell-glass, against whose curves
every branch is pressed and nodded,
yet somehow indulging so many small
departures that there is still an appear
ance of perfect freedom.
The foliage of the saplings is dark
bluish-green in color, while the oldest
trees frequently ripen to warm yellow
tint like the libocedrus. The bark is
rich cinnamon brown, purplish in young
or trees, and in shady portions of the
old, while all the ground is covered with
brown burs and leaves, forming color
masses of extraordinary richness, not to
mention the flowers and underbrush that
brighten and bloom in their season. -
Iob,o 1E,,;. "a, Hor,,o,'o Afnooz;oo