The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-01-11

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
"HINK of an ant crawling on the
ground through a vast cornfeld,
looking up at the tall stalks.
To the ant the cornstalks are
as high as the California Big Trees
are to man gazing at their distant
tops.
But it is their astounding age, as
well as their size and beauty, which
fills the soul of puny man with awe
and reverence for the Creator.
Big Trees, stout and healthy today,
were centuries old when Christ was
born. Men call them ''the oldest living
things" So nearly indeStructible are
they that some naked, fire-scorched
trunks still stand, though dead before
America was discovered; others, which
fell centuries ago, remain sound and
solid inside. Such vitality has the Sc
quota that when felled its branches
do not wither for years. One giant
crashed in 1926. In 1881 its foliage
was still fresh and green.
They link us with the past. Their
Sequoia forebears grew here when the
world was younger, when reptiles grew
to enormous size. Such mammOthS as
the dinOsaur, unable to adjust them
selves to climatic and other changes,
faded from the earth; but the Sequoia
family endured and saw the rise Of
the mammals. Yet today, when you
walk beneath these towering tree gil
ants, you feel that the deer and the
squirrel hardly fit into scene set for
the brontosaurus and the pterodactyl.
Time was when the SeQuoia genus
was spread over four continents. At
least twelve fossil species are known,
scattered from Greenland and across
Europe to Asia. Fossilized trunks az
much as 10 feet In diameter and near
ly 80 feet high still stand in MiOcene
deposits in Yellowstone National park.
The wood Of these petrified trunks un-
der the microscope looks very much
| like that of the trees alive today.
These ancestors of our present Sc
/ quotas formed much Of forests which
in ancient days clothed polar regions
now barren or locked in ice. Only two
species survived the Glacial epoch, and
these are now practically limited to
| California.
Big Trees and Redwoods Differ.
Some people confuse CALIFORNIA;
Redwoods with its so-called "Big
Trees" Both are "big" and both are
of the genus Sequoia both have pink
or red wood and both are trees of the
largest size But they are two species,
distinct In habitat, in bark, foliage,
and In reproduction.
The Coast Redwood, or Sequoia SEM
| pervirens, Is found only near the coast
or within the belt of sea fogs, and ex-
] tends from southern Oregon down to
( Monterey county, in California.
The larger species, the California
Big Tree. or Sequoia gigantea, is con-
| fined to the western slopes of the ST.
ezra Nevada, between 1000 and $500
feet elevation, from Placer county, in
the north, to Tulare county, in the
south, and is much more abundant in
the south than in the north.
The Coast Redwood forms an almost
continuous forest in which it is the
dominant stand; the Big Trees grow
in scattered groves, II in all, inter-
spersed among the heavier stands of
white fir, sugar pine. and other trees.
Though smaller in diameter and
bulk, the Coast Redwood is taller than
it's cousin, the Big Tree. The former
attains a maximum height of 1853 feet
and a maximum base diameter of
about 35 feet.
When the Coast Redwood is cut
down, it "stump-sprouts," as foresters
say. A ring of young trees springs up
around the stump Of the slaughtered
sempervirens hence its Latin name,
the Everything Sequoia."
But the Big Tree reproduces only
from seed; and, since its seeds require
specially favorable conditions to root,
there was real danger of the extinc-
ton of the species until national and
state parks were created.
The foliage of the Coast Redwood
somewhat resembles that of the fir or
hemlock, but the slender, prickly foil
| age of the Big Tree has no counter
part in America. The only tree which
at first glance might be confused with
the Big Tree is the cryptomeria of
| japan.
Survived Ice and Fire.
Ages before man came to chop these
trees for his use, ice and fire were
their fierce foes. Again and again NOV
ing glaciers moved them down-gla-
ciers whose icy fingers stretched down
mountain canyons to freeze all animal
and plant life. Whether in warm and
sheltered spots few trees remained,
or whether only seeds survived, can
probably never be known; but slowly
the cold hands relaxed and the for
ests returned. The fact that the Big
Trees are more abundant and larger
In the southern part of their range in
dicates that there the effects Of the
glacier were less severe.
With the passing Of the Age of Ice,
the struggles Of the sequoias had only
begun. Fires followed the ordeal of
ice. The abundant rains ceased, and
long, dry summers rendered the for
ests tinderlike, ready to be ignited by
lightning or by brands tossed by In
dams to drive out game or clear Land
for forage.
There Is scarcely a mature sequoia
that does not show the effects Of at
least one fire. Every 20 or 80 years
ffames Gwept through the forest some