The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-10

trees into lumber. If the reported fig
ures are correct the proposition is a
| good one, from business point of
view, as the grove is said to contain
over two thousand acres, and the mar
ket value Of the timber would well war;
rant the price.
That the destruction of these trees at
any cost would be a great calamity is
now generally conceded, and the public
has become aroused on the matter.
Several California organizations, nota-
bly, the Sierra club, the Pioneer club.
the Iceland Stanford and the California
universities, the San Joaquin Valley
Commercial club and other organiza-
tons have taken action and apparently
Congress has listened to these appeals,
To speak the plain truth, while un-
doubtedly the grove is threatened with
destruction, I cannot feel that there iS
really much danger. / do not believe
that our authorities at Washington will
allow such national disgrace to occur.
Who of our congressman or senators
would attempt to give to his constitu-
ents any respectable excuse for even
neglect to act, much less for opposition
W lily iCaoOie]DiC liiCapuiS LOA tiaSil
preservation? To allow the destruction
Of this wonder Of the World" when it
could be so easily saved, would be even
more national disgrave than a nation
al calamity This requires no argument
to prove. These majestic trees so ap-
peal to sentiment and so arouse the inn
agination, and they are the object Of so
much pride to Americans, that I have
believed that the general government
would prevent their loss in the way
now threatened.
To allow their destruction by lum-
Der company, to be made into boards
and fence posts would be an act that
no congressman or senator will care to
be guilty Of; he may do strange things
where political ends are to be gained,
but he could hardly hope TO frame de-
cent excuse for such an act. 1t would
too obviously confirm the allegation
that certain foreign writer's like to
make against Americans, that the ma
ton may be great in money making,
but Is deficient in higher culture.
What better argument could be
brought, If, for few dollars, we allow
the destruction Of these noble trees, the
grandest on earth. and, which once gone
will be loss forever. l have no fear
that our authorities at Washington will
thus put themselves and us before the
world as barbarians in culture.
These groves have much wider in
terest than that which comes from the
mere size Of the trees, although they are
by far the grandest trees on earth, eth
err now or that ever will be again. This
is only part of their interesting story.
They are the last survivors of genus
that has played prominent part in the
history of the forests of the globe dur
ing several geological ages. The Sc
quotas came into existence in the Gre
tacious period and attained their great
est development in the Tertiary. More
than twenty species are found fossil,
and have been described by tbotanists.
They are found abundantly distributed
in Italy. France, Bohemia. Great Brit
ain and in fact over most of Europe
from the Mediterranean to Spitzbergen,
and in North America they are even
more widely distributed Their remains
occur in the clays and other deposits
from the Potomac to Greenland,
throughout the Rocky Mountain region
and British America, and from Califor-
MIA to Alaska. 1 hava collected numer-
Gus fossil specimens in the rocks of Cal
ifornia. Several fossil species have
been found in New England, notably at
Gay Head. Some of these fossil species
closely resemble in their cones and foil
age the Sequoia gigantea of the Calav-
eras Grove. There is abundant evil
dence that many of these ancient trees
We're of enormous size and that the Sc
quotas were conspicuous featuhe of
those prlmeval forests.
Some species died out before the Ga-
,ial period, but that long and cold WIN
ter which lasted for thousands of years,
and covered so much of Europe and
North America with glaciers, nearly ex-
the genus. 1t destroyed all
he species Of Europe and most of those
IF North America Only these two
we're left, stranded in California. These
ire the only representatives now left to
show to the present and future genera
ions what those ancient forests looked |
Ike. To destroy these now, for their
-imber, would be disgrace, CHASING us
With the barbarians who destroyed OBJ |
ects of Greclan art.
Again, they are the longest lived of |
living things now on earth No others |
ever lived to be nearly so old. A consid- |
,rable numbed Of the trees left are still !
over two thousand years |
I'D and there Is much evidence that |
ome are very much older. Those who |
AVE had the best chance to study them |
md have made the most extensive in |
groves, believe that trees still stand that
ire more than four thousand years old.
When first described from the evidence
t hand some of the trees were estima-
ed to be six thousand years of age.
this probably Is too much,
hat the oldest are four thousand or
more, seems to me very possible,
How this appeals to the imagination.
Il ancient times, the width of the larger
oons in the temples was limited by the
When Solomon built the temple at Je-
usalem the adjacent region had no
imber large enough for such building
8 he planned, and he resorted to the
Of Lebanon for beams of its
oble cedars. Had the Sierra groves
hen been known and accessible to his
'orkmen, Solomon's temple might have
cen very much grander than it was.
t is probable that some of the trees
ow growing there were already then
,ora thar, a Thousand ,yaoro old and