The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-27
Forest Giants.


tgslfoad. as the deathrattle of a
California giant was heard. After
ht{prs of underwriting and cross
N#ifg, they had cut through all but
os1e and a half inches of the mon.
stHius trunk, fifteen feet in diameter.
ai1u the cracking of the wood an.
au1nced that the monarch was about
lpfah. Its lofty top. 275 feet above
t1P ground, wavered moment, and
bdSVeu gracefully and with stately
9if, like grand lady courtesying /;
lien gathering impetus as it left the
peftendicuhT, the great trunk rush
sd 81 The Garth with terrific force.
k ~ 10 tic course sf;ts Keti outl
for it by the wO0dsmen, it tore the
foliage from the prOtruding limbs.
filed the air with flying branches
and bits of tark, swept away every
obstacle in its path, and descending
with tremendous force, struck the
ground with a thud to be heard a
mile. Clouds of dust shot up sixty
fee! the earth shook and rumbled.
The PROSTATE giant trembled once
FROM top to stump, and all was over.
1t was death scene of awful gram
deur ana snlemnity. Even the lum
nermen, accustomed to the sight
daily, dropped their sledges, double
btted axes, malls. goads, and water
huckets, and gazpd in silence at the
overthrow of the many-centuried
riouarch. The cutting Of the red
woods is the mammoth numbering
Of the world. California has no COM
petiior in big trees. They helrn to
the genus Scquoia-a name derived
from Sevuoyah, Cherokee, who in
vented an alphabet and written Ian
guage for his Indian tribe-and are
of two species. They are found in
the tract west of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, between the thirty. fourth
and forty-second degre, s of latitu ip,
ranging in height from 300 to 400
feet, and in diameter from eight to
twenty-five feet. The famous big
trees of Calaveras and Mariposa be-
long to the S2quOia gigantees, while
those along the coast north of San
Francisco are Sequ0ia sempervirens,
or redwood.
u hnSonora. Mendocino, and Hum
bo.dt counties, reaching from the
Golden Gate to Oregon, are immense
redwood forests covering an area from
two to twenty miles wide and nearly
200 miles long. from which millions
of feet of lumber are now cut annu-
ally. Redwood is the most valuable
timber in the State. As yet no rail-
road traverses this territory, but
work has been begun on lines which
will soon bring the numbering camps
within easy reach of the market. The
redwood is a coniferOus evergreen.
resembling in some respects the cy-
press. The wood, which is extern
siyeIy used on the Pacific slope for
building, and is seen in recent houses
in Boston and Chicago, is of fine
red color, but fades slowly when eX-
posed to the light. The -hrinkage is
principally lengthwise, and in Cali
fornia the wood is very popular. The
timber land is exceedingly valuable,
as single trees are often worth 5000 or
800. the current price of redwood
hpng SIC to $50 per thousand. A
trip to the redwood numbering camp
is full of interest. The operations
are on scale unknown in other re-
gions, and the hauling is entirely
overland. AS one draws near the
choppers settlement the half char,
red stumpS give the first adequate
idea of the immense size of the red
woods. Although their circumter-
ence is not so great as that of the
Yosemite trees, many measure sixty
feet around. and have an area on a
cross section six feet from the ground
of 800 feet. In height they have no
equals. When man stands at the
base of tree $50 feet high he is II
mere pigmy, and feels his insignifi
canoe. Great skill is exhibited in
telling redwood. Early in the
work a ten-fOot post will be erected
in the ground fifteen or twenty feet
from the base, which the falling tree
will drive out of sight. 1t rarely
fails to do so. The choppers under
cut it about one third of the way
through on the side toward the pest,
then with Il crOss.cut saw they work
from the opposite side toward the
first ncision.
Leaving narrow strip uncut, they
drive wedges To topple the giant ovel
into the prescribed path. When
feled, the tree is quickly stripped of
the scant foliage on the upper third
of its length, and sawed into sections
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