166 Dr. B. Seemann on the Mammoth-tree of Upper California. 



The Mammoth-tree is rather local in its geographical range. 

 True, Carriere states that an officer of the French navy brought 

 cones identical with those obtained in California from a latitude 

 about 10 degrees north of the locality in which it was first dis- 

 covered; but as no difference between the cones of Sequoia 

 sempervirens (a common tree in that latitude) and S, Wellingtonia 

 has as yet been pointed out, the evidence adduced cannot be 

 looked upon as conclusive. More probable seems the statement 

 that Sequoia Wellingtonia has been met with in Carson Creek, a 

 few miles northward of the Mammoth-tree Grove, and that of 

 its having been observed in various other parts of the Sierra 

 Nevada, where, however, according to the unanimous testimony 

 of the various accounts, it does not attain those gigantic dimen- 

 sions we are wont to associate with it. It is beheld in the 

 greatest perfection in the Mammoth-tree Grove, situated near 

 the head-waters of the Stanislaus and San iVntonio rivers, in the 

 county of Calaveras, latitude 38° N., longitude 120° 10^ W., at 

 at elevation of between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and 

 about fifteen miles from Murphy's Camp, the nearest gold- 

 diggings, ninety-five from Sacramento city, and eighty-five from 

 Stockton (by stage route). In visiting the place, the tra- 

 veller can obtain vehicles and animals at Murphy's Camp, and 

 proceed to his destination by carriage-road, gradually ascending, 

 through a splendid forest of pines, cedars, and firs, here and 

 there dotted with fine oaks. The valley in which the grove is 

 situated contains about 160 acres of land, and, according to 

 Winslow, is a basin of coarse siliceous material surrounded by a 

 ridge of syenitic rock, which in some places projects above the 

 surface. The soil is a rich and very deep-black loam. The 

 climate is delightful. During the summer it is entirely free 

 from the scorching heat of the lower country, the vegetation 

 remaining fresh and green, while the water is as pure as crystal 

 and almost as cold as ice. The vicinity, we are assured, offers 

 every inducement to sportsmen, many kinds of game abounding, 

 while the brooks teem with excellent trout. Delightful horse- 

 back rides conduct the visitor to the Falls of San Antonio, the 

 basaltic clifi's on the North Fork of the Stanislaus, and other 

 interesting points of scenery and objects of curiosity. 



Things are easiest judged of by comparison; and what pro- 

 claims loudly the enormous size of our vegetable giant is its 

 growing in a country as distinguished for huge trees as Ken- 

 tucky and Virginia are for tall men. Bateman has attempted 

 more special comparisons, strikingly illustrated in a series of 

 diagrams which he exhibited in a lecture on the subject at 

 Congleton, and afterwards in the rooms of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, One of these diagrams (on the scale of 



