St. Landry democrat., 1885-11-28

he had to look up three times in
succession in order to do SO, e&cA
time taking in as many feet as he
thought he ought to to find the top,
which was nearly three hundred feet
above the ground.
The redwood is tenacious OF life, as
is shown in the numerous sprouts which
shoot up around the edge of decayed
stump. The color of the wood is brown
ish-red, and the lumber, in drying, has
the popularity of shrinking in length
instead OF in width, as in pine. This
tree attains its greatest perfection with
in the fog-belt near the Pacific Ocean,
and its extreme height is probably ow-
ing to the effect of rich soil combined
with irrigation from the dense mists,
which, in the summer, often envelop
the redwood forests
In Mendocino County, private rail.
roads, few miles in length, are used
for transporting the immense amount
of lumber from the woods to the coast
In Sonoma County, an original and
successful piece of railroad engineering
is found. which is nothing less than a
road-bed in the tree-tops. Between
Clipper Mills and the redwood forests
is deep ravine. In order to cross the
ravine, The trees are sawed off on a
level each side, and the timber and ties
are laid on the stumps. Two huge red.
wood trees stand side by side in the cen.
ter of the ravine, with their tops cut of
seventy-fve feet above their roots.
These make substantial central sup
port. and cars heavily laden with huge
saw-logs pass over this bridge in per.
feet safety.
This county also boasts of several ex-
tremely tall trees, one OF which is said
to be fourteen feet in diameter and
three hundred and forty-e ght feet in
height. Another is claimed to be nine
teen feet in diameter and three hundred
and ffty-seven feet high.
The little Baptist Church of Santa
Rosa, the dimensions of which are fifty
six by ninety-six feet, was wholly built
from the redwood tree. and many
shingles from the giant were left after
its completion.
The pleasures Of camp life are appre-
ciated by numerous Californians, and
an old redwood stump is sometimes
found very useful as temporary kitch-
en- A certain person, writing from one
of these camps, says:
''Our kitchen is redwood stump,
measuring exactly forty-tive feet round
and nearly twenty-five feet across the
widest part. The fire is in the center,
and a right royal campfire it makes at
night, when we sing to the notes of the
either, or listen to the owl or wildcats
stirring in the bushes.
Even larger stumps of redwood than
this one may be seen as person rides
through the Contra Costa forests, the
trees having been cut in early days for
lumber or tireWood.
The great tree. Sequoia- gigantea, of
the Sierra Nevada was first seen by
white men in 1852, when hunter by
the name of Dowd reached the Calave-
raS grove, and afterward led few mi
ners to the spot. Although larger than
the coast redwood, it is not so hand
some a tree. the branches being shorter,
the spray less graceful, and the species
nowhere forms a forest by itself, but is
intermixed with other coniferous trees,
mainly sugar-pines.
Eight or ten of these groves have
been discovered in various counties;
but one of those in Calaveras County
contains some of the largest trees.
Time, the giant killer" has laid some
of these monarchs in the dust, and the
largest stage can pass through one Of
the dead giants, while but one-half OF
the interior of the tree has been cut
away.
One of these trees, THE Mother of
the Forest. = is stripped of its bark for
one hundred and sixteen feet from the
ground, and is three hundred and tWen-
ty-seven feet in height It was much
larger in circumference before losing
the bark, but now it is seventy-eight
feet and a party OF twenty persons,
with arms outstretched and hands
joined, can just reach around it. A
pavilion is erected over the stump Of
one giant, which has a diameter of
twenty three feet, and in one direction
of twenty-four feet; its annual rings on
the section, besides an imperfect center,
are twelve hundred and tifty-five; in
deed, it has been discovered that any
of the mammoth trees indicate an aver
age of over two thousand years.
A few years since five men worked
twenty-five days in telling one of the
giants, using large augers for the pur-
pose. A person must now as it lies as
cend ladder twenty five steps 10 get
upon the top of the trunk.
But the ''Father of the Forest is the
most wonderful. 1t measures one hun
dred and twelve feet in circumference,
and is supposed to have been over four
hundred feet in height. 1t had been
burned out, so that people may ride
through it; or, if they wish to examine
giant knot-hole. they may walk
through until ladder is reached from
the inside, then climb the ladder.