Year: 1861




The Rev. Thomas Starr King,i in recent
letter to the Boston Transcript, thus de-
scribes the celebrated Sugar Pines of the
Sierras:


We were very tired when we dismounted
at Clarke's log hut and canvas dining tent
in. the glorious forest, thirty miles from
Mariposa, tired in body and in brain-tired
by our seven hours of horseback riding,
and by the perpetual feat of floral beauty
and sugar pine magni6cence which had de-
lighted the eye and heart. But it did not
require long to restore US. Half an hours
rest under one of the stately frs that tow
cred above the cabin, and cup of tea with
our noon meal, fit for q mandarin, put us
in good working trim for the afternoons
excursion. We were only five miles from
the mammoth trees. An easy upland ride
of an hour would lead us to the grove
where the vegetable Titans we had so of-
ten read about with wonder tinged with
unbelief held their solemn court.


And confess that began to doubt, as
the time for mounting again approached,
as to the existance of the marvels. Was
it possible that, before sunset, 1 was to
stand by living tree more than ninety
feet in circuit, and over three hundred feet
high? Think what these figures mean,
my hasty reader, when transformed into
solid bark and fiber. Take ball of cord,
measure off hundred feet from it, cut and
tie the ends, and then, by the aid of four
or five of your companions, stretch it in
circle (if you have a parlor spacious enough
to permit the experiment., and imagine
that space filled with column of vigorous
cedar. Now, conceive this tree rooted on
the common, near the entrance. What
do you say to the idea of looking up its
smooth trunk to point higher than the
topmost leaf of any elm on the fremont
street mall, and of seeing there a bough
thicker than the largest of those elms
shooting out from it? What do you say
to the fact that its plumes would nod a
hundred feet above the vane at Park street
spire? What do you say to the possibili-
ty, if it lay hollow on the ground, of driv
ing baroache and four through it with
out their being able to touch the highest
point of its curved ceiling with 'ten foot
pole?" Then think of it cut up into six
thousand cords of wood, I forget how
much space the iron fence incloses around
the great elm on the common. 1t is not
so much as thirty-four feet in diameter;
the fence would not encircle the tree we
are speaking Of At any rate, if such
Colossus should spring near the frog-pond,
the old elm would look by the side of it
like General Tom Thumb at the knee of
Hercules.


The Mariposa Grove stands as the Gre
ator has fashioned it, unprofaned, except
by fire, which long before the advent Of
the Saxon white men, had charred the
base of the larger portion of the stalwart
trees. We rode on for an hour, climbing
all the time, till we reached the forest pla-
teau five thousand feet above the sea-
This, in New England, is the hight of Mt.
Madison, where not scrub can grow
Riding on a few rods, through ordinary
evergreens with dark stems, we at last
catch glimpse of strange color in the
forest. 1t is tree in the distance of q
light cinnamon hue. We ride nearer and
nearer, seeing others of the same complex
ion staring out in the most impressive con-
trast with the sombre columns of the will
derness. We are now in the grove of the
Titans. We single out one of them for
first acquaintance, and soon dismount at
its roots. -5.-r.-


l must confess that my own feelings, as
I first scanned it, and let them roam up
its tawny pillar, was of intense disap-
pointment. But then 1 said to myself,
this is doubtless one of the striplings of
the Anak blood-only small affair of
some forty feet in girth. 1 took out the
measuring line, fastened it to the trunk
with knife, and walked around, unwinding
as went. The line was seventy feet long.
came to the end of the line before CON-
pleting the circuit. Nine feet more were
needed. had dismounted before struc-
ture eignty-four feet in circumference, and
should not have guessed that it would
measure more than fifteen feet through.
1t did not look to me twice as large as the
Big Elm on the Common, although that
is only eighteen feet in circumference, and
this was twenty-eight in diameter. Dur
ing the day had seen dozen sugar-pines
which appeared to be far more lofty. ,.a1