Dr. B. Seemann on the Mammoth-tree of Upper California. 171 



By means of the electric telegraph, we have outdone Puck's 

 startling promise to 



" put a girdle round about the earth 

 In forty minutes ;" 



and our Califomian giant more than rivals the tree placed by 

 Milton in the hands of Satan as a lance, 



" to equal which. 

 The tallest pine hewn on Norwegian shores. 

 To be the mast of some great ammiral. 

 Were but a wand." 



But this very fact, the realization of much that was thought 

 ideal, has engendered and nursed a desire to behold with our 

 own eyes whatever belongs to this category. There probably 

 never was a time in history when " sight-seeing ^' was regarded 

 with more favour, or found readier advocates, than the present. 

 Speculators were therefore not backward in making capital out 

 of this state of feeling as applied to the Mammoth-tree. To 

 transport masses of people to the grove was impossible ; but to 

 transport at least portions of the famous giants to the centres 

 of our great cities, practicable. The latter, accordingly, was 

 done ; and the earliest accounts of the Mammoth-tree which 

 reached Europe were coupled with the sad intelligence that a 

 piece of Vandalism had been perpetrated in Upper California, 

 unexpected in our enlightened days. One of the finest trees of 

 the grove, we were informed, had been felled for the purpose of 

 being publicly exhibited. This individual was 96 feet in cir- 

 cumference at the base, and solid timber. The work of destruc- 

 tion commenced by boring with augers and sawing the spaces 

 between, — a labour engaging twenty-five men for five days. 

 But when this was done, the tree was found to stand so nearly 

 perpendicular that it would not fall ; and it was only by applying 

 a wedge and battering-ram, during a strong breeze, that the 

 trunk was finally upset. In falling, it convulsed the earth, and 

 by its weight forced the soil from beneath it, so that it lies in a 

 trench ; and mud and stones were hurled near a hundred feet 

 high, where they left their mark on neighbouring trees. The 

 bole forms the bed for two bowling-alleys. A section of 2 feet 

 long taken from the stump, also a portion of bark, were both 

 exhibited. The latter was put up in a natural form, and con- 

 stituted a spacious carpeted room, containing a pianoforte, with 

 seats for forty persons. On one occasion 140 children were 

 admitted without inconvenience. The surface of the stump, still 

 remaining in the ground, is smooth, and aff'ords ample space for 

 thirty-two persons to dance, it being 75 feet in circumference ; 

 theatrical performances have also been given upon it on various 



