The Carlisle independent., 1909-12-23

ed cavalrymen have been posed for their photographs upon the fallen bole at one time. A similar fallen tree is seen in the Upper grove. with a flight of 13 steps leading from the ground to its upper surface. Two great trees, known as the California" and the "Wawona," have roadways cut through them, ten feet square, through which the stages are driven. This serves well to give visitors to the grove an adequate idea of the tre- mendous size of the trees.
 Nearly all the Big trees in the Mari posa grove bear black scars of the forest fires of past years. The ''Tele- scope Tree" has been burned to mere shell, so that one can stand in the hollow trunk and look upward to daylight among the branches, 200 feet from the ground. Two young cav alrymen. now stationed in the grove to prevent vandalism, have built for themselves a camp that is unique among military camps the world over. Their horses are stablsd in the trunk of forest patriarch that has been hollewed out by fire; and their tent is pitched in the shadow of the slo- ping bole of giant tree, broken some distance from the ground. and still resting upon the stump from which it was severed. To particularize the oth- CT notable trees in the grove would be wearisome.
 John Muir has pronounced the Big Trees of California Natures forest masterpieces-the greatest of living things. One does not appreciate their greatness until he has walked around them, measured their girth, lain down on the ground and allowed the eye to travel slowly and comprehendingly up, the imperceptibly tapering trunks.i II Then he is ready to take off his hau to these green but venerable relies of the youth of the world. Prof Da ,, vid Starr Jordan believes that some of them are 5000 years old. They ante. date the oldest civilization of which the archaeologist finds any trace. They were forest giants before Moses. or Confucius. or Buddha, or any oth- CT maker of laws or of religion. whose. name history records, was born. They were 'old" before Christ walked the earth; and reared their tall Crowns 1 in majesty toward the skies centuries before Troy fell. or the pyramids were builded, or the foundations ofI Babel were laid. Who can say how many more ephemeral civilizationsl religions and social systems they will i survive? Barring accident and catasl trephe. they appear to be immortal | There is no evidence that they ever die of disease, decay or old age. Soma Of them are dead at the tep-but thev were blasted by lightning, and, tha trunks are still as sound as eyer] Many have been tunaeled by fire hut even this appears not ts have affected their vitality. Repeated forest Ares may burn them to the ground, and z succession of thunderbolts nay per- manently blast or hopelessIy sAatteI them; or they may be undermined bv floods or blown down by terrific storms. But death appears to be as un- natural for them as 1t Is inevitable fo all things else that have life.
 The Big Trees belong to a eenua that is now represented by two spe. eies-the Sequoia Sempervireas of the Coast range and the Sequoia Gieantea of the Sierra Nevadas. The former is the redwood of commerce. It is of
 much more rapid growth than the re-
 lated species of the Sierras. but by
 no means so long lived. nor does 1t
 grow to so great size