Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-06-14


ward. 1t is itself sufficient cause for
being. The Sentinels are satisfactory as
sentinels. the majesties are still
to come Whirl round the corner in
whose angle they stand, and in few rods
you stand before the chief of the clan.
Get out of the wagon and reverently
pace around the mighty mass of living
wood. 1t takes forty PAGES to walk
around it. Its cavernous sides, black
ened by fires that have been kindled in
them, open their ponderous jaws twenty
and thirty feet above you, twenty and
thirty feet within the outer bark. Its
lowest measure is a hundred feet, while
its wide extending roots, that come out
from the sides like the paws of lion
from his legs. if included in the meas
urement, would make it cover hundred
and twenty, if not hundred and fifty
feet.
This tree is not as tall as some of its
fellows. 1t has devoted itself to bulk.
1T hardly reaches three hundred feet
1t is called the Grizzly Giant and is the
master of the forest. Opposite lies its
fellow prone. A set of steps-a dozen
or twenty of them-leads you to the
upper side of the monster, and yon
promenade on deck longer than that
of an Atlantic steamer, if it had deck
that traversed its whole length. But
these are wonders and they are cheap.
A few rods further, and we meet dou-
BILE tree, shooting up from one base the
matter of hundred feet, and then de-
parting-a couple of Bunker Hill mon
uments perched on a trunk a hundred
feet high and bigger round than it is at
its base. The trees are not so numer-
Gus as to distract. They are all easily
noticeable. The other trees gather
about them in deep humility plenty of
servants for the few forest lords. May
they have large progeny. The young
Sequoia, even to saplings foot high
are numerous. They show that, if let
alone three thousand years. there may
be other giants on the earth of the same
blood as these.
We pass through this grove, wind up
hill another mile or two, and enter
still larger forest of larger trees. Though
no one here surpasses the Grizzly Giant
many here surpass the most there.
They are also more comely group.
They stand forth in their light-brown
apparel, twenty and thirty feet in diam
eter, tall, graceful marvellous.
The Italian in our company declared
them far greater curiosity than the
Yosemite. 1--WE can see chasms every
where. We can see these trees only
here" An Englishman said "they
were the Wellingtonia giigantea' In
censed at this British assumption of
giving our trees the name of only a
Brithish general, one of the party re-
membered how nephew of his in the
crypt of st. Paul, when the verger,
pointing to the carriage that bore Well
hngton to his burial, said it was made
of cannon taken from the enemy that he
conquered, remarked, 81 believe there
are none from America here" deter
mined to give this British impudence a
slight rebuke. So, as they paused amid
a group, to give the horses and passen-
gers drink, splendid tree was point
ed out as one to which was to be given
the name of Grant, on the coming of the
conqueror here.-"Better call them all
Grant, was the American retort. HE
is the Wellington of America, and a
greater than the English Wellington" }"
The ''stony British stare of surprise
satisfied the ardent Yankee, and he sub
sided serene.
At the terminus of the trip the chief
surprise occurred. George turns his
four horses and wagon, containing eight
persons, straight to one of the trees.
The road runs neither to the one side
nor the other. 1t is Longfellow's West
ern road, which, opening wide and
handsome, turns into squirrel-path
and runs up tree.-But this squirrel
path is still wide enough to hold horses
and wagon, and, instead of running up
tree runs through it. The trunk is
sawn high and wide, as that we all
gathered within it-four horses and
long wagon-and still there's room fol-
more.
No one event so impresses the visitor.
Yet, when you come to figures, it does
not surprise you. A double team and
carriage is not thirty feet long. This
tree is thirty feet through. The i'm
mense cut has not destroyed its vitality
1t grows green above and around the
deep cut, and looks likely to live and
grow another three thousand years.
Up another trunk you look through
an ori6ce in the top-a telescope by tht
of which Ross's is microscope. Through
another, prone, you walk for severa
hundred feet, the roof as high as tina
of country church. In another, call
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