199 



The following communication was received from Mr. W. P. 

 Blake on the Great Trees of Mariposa and other locaHties in Cali- 

 fornia : 



The now celebrated Mariposa grove of trees (^Sequoia gigantea) 

 is nearly on the line between Mariposa and Fresno counties, and 

 but a fe^v miles south of the trail leading from the ]\Iariposa estate to 

 the Yo-Semite valley. It is about 5,000 feet above the sea, and on 

 the western slope of a high ridge of the Sierra Nevada, from 

 which there is a fine view of the desert-like plains of the San 

 Joaquin in the distance. 



From Clark's, in the valley of the South Fork of the Merced 

 river, the ascent to the trees is over undulating spurs and ridges, 

 covered with magnificent forests of pines, firs, and spruces, and 

 almost without undergrowth, the smooth surface bemg broken only 

 at wide intervals by out-crops of gneissic rocks. The trees are 

 spread along a lateral valley, on the flank of the main ridge, in 

 two groves, about half a mile apart, known as the Upper and 

 Lower Grove. 



The visitor, in passing through the lower grove, fii-st meets a 

 tree which is uprooted, and hes at full length on the ground, as 

 complete a barrier to progress as a wall thirty feet high. Ascend- 

 ing the side of this huge trunk, by means of a ladder, and steps cut 

 in the bark, I was enabled to make an accurate measurement of its 

 length with a tape-line, and found it to be two hundred and fifty- 

 SLX feet from the upper part of the swell of the roots to the top, 

 w^here it was still eighteen inches in diameter ; all beyond this 

 having been burned away. Mr. Clark, who first saw the tree in 

 1837, says it measured two hundred and sixty-eight feet before it 

 was burned. Being partly imbedded in the soil near the roots, its 

 size or diameter could not be readily ascertained, but it probably is 

 about twenty-five feet. 



Beyond this, there is a very fine tree known as the " Grisly 

 Giant," standing on a dry and rather rocky point, and visible to 

 great advantage from the absence of many other trees around it. 

 This ti-ee is remarkable for the great size and number of its 

 branches, which give it a considerable breadth of top, while in 

 height it is inferior to many that are much more slender, and even 

 to many of the pines and firs of moderate diameter. It measures 

 eighty-nine feet around the trunk, about three feet above the 

 ground, but an additional ten feet may be allowed for a large por- 

 tion which is burned out of the side, making it, if perfect, about 

 mnety-nine feet in circumference, or thirty-three feet in diameter. 

 Another tree beyond, and about the same girth, is bifurcated about 

 seventy-five feet from the ground ; the two parts being nearly equal 



