The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-08-12
AMONG THE Big TREES
THE WONDERFUL GROVE IN OLDEST
AND LARGEST WORLD-THE DYING GIANT THE
ONLY NATURE sEQUoIA, BEGINNING LEAN AND CABLES
PROPOSED

SAN FRANCISCO, August 1.-The
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, as it
officially known, is about eight miles
from Wawona Hotel. The journey to
it is made by stage starting from the
hotel a little after O'clock in the m1rn-
ing. 1t is a pleasing drive through for
ests of pine ana cedar and fir, in the
fresh morning air of the mountains.
The big trees do not constitute a grove
by themselves but are scattered among
the pine and cedar of the mountain
forest When first seen their giant
size does not impress itself on the ina
gination The eye and the mind alike
seem to refuse to grasp the huge dimen-
sions of height and girth. There are
other trees-pines and frs of stately
proportions,-sid by side with the Sc
quotas, to give comparison. But it
seems as though the comparison merely
dwarfed the pines. The Fallen Mo-
march," one Of the giants Frustrated by
age or storms centuries ago, helps the
mind to grasp the enormous growth,
A coach and six can be driven up the
nearly horizontal slope of the PROSTATE
trunk. There is room for a troop Of
cavalry on this colossal log,
A little farther on is the Grizzly
Giant the largest tree in the world,
unless some of the same species re-
Gently found in the fastness of the
mountains to the south shall prove to
surpass it. By the time the Grizzly
Giant is reached the mind is beginning
to grasp the magnitude of the SequOas.
Their girtn and height is beginning to
impress itself on the eve and mind.
The impressiveness of their huge mass
is beginning to be felt
The Grizzly Giant is impressive from
it's venerableness as we'll as its size. 1t
is really old even as SequOias may
count age. 1t was here when Abraham
sacrificed unto the Lord in Mount Mo-
riah. John Muir, who passed through
Honolulu recently, said some years ago
that this was the only Sequoia that
seemed to have reached the zenith Of
it's growth. This year has confirmed
Muir's opinion. The Grizzly Giant is
undoubtedly dying. The great trunk
is beginning to lean a little from the
vertical. 1t has been proposed to sus-
tain it in an upright position with steel
cables. But these is protest against this
It's triends and neighbors cry out "a
full if cables can be fastened so as to
| hold the enormous weight they say.
1t will be years in falling, anyway, they
assert; perhaps a thousand years; and
if its time has come, if it must fall, let
it fall. Better the magnificence of
ruins than the ugliness of guy ropes.
The Grizzly Giant is lO4 feet in cir
| conference and pa feet in height. IT
is a hundred feet to the first limb, which
! is twenty feet in circumference. But
! these measurements are not what are
| impressive; 1t is the great tree itself
which becomes more and more impress
siYYe as you look at it,
The drive through the lower and tha
upper groves is a constant delight. The
succession of Sequoias with their red
dish brown bark, their towering height
and their massive girth, impress them
| selves more and more on the eye and
mind. The ride on the stage coach
through the tree named California and
later through the larger one called Wa
wona help to give a realizing sense of
the enormOuse size of these largest and
oldest trees in the world.
Most of the very large trees in both
groves have been given names. Nearly