VOL. I. | Seguota Forests. 203 
that there exists any Sequoia on the Kern River slope, but there are 
on that side at least 1,500 or 2,000 acres in groves scattered along 
the slope from Freeman’s Valley southward for some fifteen miles. 
Only one of these tracts could be classed as a forest, that of Free- 
man Valley. Here is a tract of about 1,000 acres, a limited por- 
tion of which is probably the heaviest growth of Seguota gigantea 
in the world. Unfortunately this also has passed into the hands of 
lumbermen. One grove more remains to be mentioned, not because 
of its intrinsic merit, but because of its location, it being, so far as 
known, the southernmost limit of Sequoia. It is that on Deer 
Creek, indicated on older maps as “Mammoth Grove.” It con- 
tains less than 150 Sequoias, scattered over an area of perhaps 300 
acres. . 
This completes the list. The Sequoia forests proper therefore 
extend over a belt of country beginning at Converse Basin on the 
north, and ending with the Indian Reservation Forest, sixty miles 
to the south. The groves and forests together in this region are 
upwards of twenty in number, with an average distance between 
them of perhaps three or four miles. 
Within this scope of country, a moderate estimate of the Sequoia 
area would be, according to the foregoing figures and including a few 
unnamed groves, 37,500 acres, divided between the several river 
systems as follows: 
King’s River. .... EOS ee ne ard eee 7,500 
Midwvenh River. om cee ass eS oe a ene 14,000 
BN is i eh hj es hae 14,000 
ie i SE ee ces ves 1,700 
AIGOT CROKE Sse airs es Stes 300 
PERE BOOB Gs cps 6 mains win es 37;500 
It has been sufficiently shown that there are in the State several 
forests and groves of big trees still belonging to the Government, 
aside from those embraced in the Vandever bill. To insure the 
safety of these, and to put them beyond the designs of timber- 
men, and above all, to protect them from devastating forest fires, it 
is exceedingly desirable that they be reserved and placed under 
expert supervision. We need no reminder that the greed of timber- : 
and cattle-men will-soon work havoc with what remains, unless — 
something be done to stay the devastation; and if we would save a 
a portion, we must begin at once. os : 
