VOL. I.] Sequoia Forests. 201 
ment culminating in what is known as the Vandever Sequoia Park 
Bill, lately passed in the lower house of Congress. In December, 
1885, Commissioner Sparks, of the General Land Office, withdrew 
from entry eighteen certain townships, of which this was one. The 
reason for this suspension was the alleged fraudulent character of 
the surveys. We need not consider the condition of these surveys; 
but, from the character of the country, it would seem that the sub- 
division lines of Township 17, Range 30, could be more readily run 
with a ruling pen than with chain and transit; and at that time the 
compensation for either system of survey was supposed to be the 
same. But one thing is certain, on many of the Government plats 
you will search in vain for any trace of Sequoia growth, even where 
the alleged lines run through sections now known to be heavily tim- 
bered with the mountain redwood. It is to this fact largely, no 
doubt, that the very existence of certain Sequoia forests has so 
long remained unknown to the public. 
The fact that several of the suspended townships contained big 
trees had nothing whatever to do, so far as we know, with influenc- 
ing the act of the Commissioner. But Commissioner Sparks 
‘*builded better than he knew,” and the ultimate outcome of his 
order of withdrawal has been to preserve, in the Government’s un- 
disputed possession, several forests of these big trees that would 
otherwise have gone the way of all the rest into the hands of specu- 
lators and lumbermen. Thus the matter remained in satu quo till 
the opening of the present year, the friends of Sequoia preservatién 
resting easy in the fancied security of their position, inasmuch as , 
the Department had expressly declared its policy not to restore to 
entry these lands in advance of an official examination. At the 
opening of the present year, parties interested in acquiring timber, 
by some means, secured the release of the suspension of Township 
17, Range 30. It was restored to entry on May 23d and in less 
than six weeks the entire Mineral King Forest was filed on by tim- 
ber-land claimants, and the tract effectually cleaned up. While thus : 
the greed for big tree timber was developing, the supply was grow- 
ing short, and the attention of timber prospectors was turned to 
other forests; and it was found that in the township to the south, 
Township 18, Range 30, there was a forest practically unexplored | 
that offered the best field for their next work. The same measures 
that had proved so successful in opening up Township 17, Range 
