Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-24
SHlu0ia Trees in California.

The trees in most of the small northern
groups have been counted. Those of the
Calaveras number twelve or thirteen hun.
dred; IN the Tuolumne and MERGED
groups there is less than one hundred: in
the well-known Mariposa grove. about
SIX hundredi and in the North Kings
River grove, less than nalf as many; but
the Fresno group, the largest congrega-
ton of the north, occupies an area of
three or tour square miles
The average stature attained by the
Big Tree under favorable condition is
perhaps about 275 feet, with diameter
OF twenty feet. Few full grown speci-
mems fall much short of this, while many
are twenty-five feet in diameter and near
ly 500 fevt high. Fortunate trees, so
situated as to have escaped the destruct-
i've action OF fire, are occasionally found
measuring thirty feet in diameter, and
very rarely one that is much larger.
Yet so exquisitely harmonious are even
the very nightiest of these monarchs in
all their proportions and circumstances,
there never is anything overgrown or
huge-lOoking about them, not to say
monssrons; and the first exclamation on
cenaing upon group for the first time is
See what beautiful treesn' Their real
godlike grandeur in the meantime is
invisible, but to the loving eye it will
be manifested 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 tree is comprchended from q
little distance in one harmonious view.
When, however, we approach so 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 q measuring rod
Sequolas bulge considerably at the
base yet not more than is required tor
beauty and safety; ana the only reason
that this bullying is SO often remarked as
excessive IS because SO small u section OF
the shaft is seen at once. The real taper
Of the trunk. behe'd as unit, is perfect
iy charming in its exquisite fineness, and
the appreclatlve eye ranges the massive
columns, from the swelling muscular in
step to the lofty summit dissolving in
crown of verdure, rejoicing in the unri-
vailed display of giant grandeur and
giant loveliness.
About hundred feet or more of the
trunk is usually branches, but its mas
siye simplicity is relieved by the futing
bark burrows, and loose tufts and rosettes
Of slender sprays that wave lightly on the
breeze and cast tecks of shade, seeming
to have been pinned on here ana there
for the sake OF beauty alone.
The young trees were slender, simple
branches ali the way down to the ground,
put on with strict regularity, sharply as.
piring at the top, horizontal about half
way down, and dropping in handsome
curves at the base. By the time the sap
ling is five or six hundred years old, this
splry, feathery, juvenile habit merges in
to 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 SO densely
massed, Or presents outlines so firmly
drawn'and SO constantly subordinate to a
special type. A knotty, angular, ungov-
einable-looijng branch eight or ten feet
thick may often be seen pushing ont
abruptly from the trunk. as if sure to
throw the outline curves into confusion.
but as soon as the general outline is ap-
preached it stops short. and dissolves in
spreading, cushiony bosses Of law abiding
sprays, just as if every tree were growing
underneath some huge invisible bell
glass, against whose curves every branch
is pressed and moulded, yet somehow
indulging SO many small departures that
there is still an appearance of perfect
freedom.
The foliage Of the saplings is dark
bluish-green in color, while the older
trees frequently ripen TO warm yellow
tint like the libocedrus. The bark is
rich cinnamon brown, purplish in young
er 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, nor to