The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-11
BIGGEST TREE IN THE WORLD.
Is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Cal, and is 1oS Feet in Cir
 conference.

New York Tribune.
 Just outside the borders of the General Grant National Park, the home of Cali fornia's tree aristocracy, and barely with In the boundaries of the United States forest reserve, there was discovered the other day the largest known tree in the world. While on a recent surveying ex- petition in the Sierra Nevada mountains the attention of A. H. Koebog, a civil engineer of Los Angeles. was attracted to the great size of the tree, and he im- mediately sent word to Prof. John Muir. the scientist, explorer and writer, ex- pressing a desire that MT Muir would visit and officially measure the new found giant. MT. Muir had just returned from the Kings River. Yosemite, where he had been participating in the outing of the Sierra Club. of which he is President, and was the guest of Dr. Norman b. Kelley of Fresno. when the message reached him. Accompanied by MT. Kel- ley, MT. Muir immediately set out in quest of the monarch, travelling three days in stage and on horseback before reaching the big tree.
 MT. Muir describes the tree as being well preserved well balancd, noble and majestic" and gives the following dimen- sions. which he obtained by careful meas urement: At one foot above ground the circumference is 10S feet; at four feet above ground. 9S feet; at six feet above ground the girth is 93 feet. The tree stands in a nest of lesser giants of it's own kind, and Is three miles from Con- verse basin, ten miles from the General Grant National Park and directly back of Millwood, a small town, in and about which circles an immense lumber indus try.
 Twenty-seven years ago. when on one of his exploring jaunts, Professor Muir tramped through this identical forest, within few miles of the tree just found and was at that time much interested in the discovery of a titanic stump. forty feet in diameter. that stood all blackened scared and worn by time and clements, a mute but pathetically inscribed monu- ment of primeval history. By using a microscope after chopping away the char red surface, Mir. Muir calculated that the actual life of the tree must have endured through tens of centuries, and concluded that about the time its fiuted column was twenty feet in girth the Chaldean sages were following the star that led them to the infant Savior's cradle.
 This newly discovered patriarch Is of the species Sequoia gigantea ssmpervi- rens. and belongs to a genus which flour
 
 of North America and in Europe centu- ries ago, but which was overwhelmed by the hardships of time, of change and elemental caprices, until only two species survived to represent the genus. the Se- quoia gigantea and the Sequoia gigantea semperVirens both of which took up their permanent abode in California Until the recent discovery the General Grant tree, in General Grant National Park, and two or three other titanic monarchs have reigRed supreme in size. but now their fame is shadowed by the overtowering dignity and majesty of the new rival.
 The massive, huted trunk, straight and strong as a granite pillar. Is covered with rich. cinnamon brown bark almost two feet thick. and is free from limbs to height of 175 feet, where it is estimated to be eleven feet in diameter. The branches. clothed in dense foliage. radiate symmtrically from every side of the trunk above this height, and from thick