DISCOVERY OF A NEW GROVE OF SEQUOIA 



GIGANTEA. 



BY WILLIAM W. PRICE. 



Read before the California Academy of Sciences, August i, 1892. 



While stopping with Mr. C. F. Hoffman, Superintendent of the 

 Red Point Mine on the Forest Hill divide, in Placer county, I heard 

 rumors of a grove of big trees situated somewhere on the Middle 

 Fork of the American River. I could find no one who had seen 

 the trees, and I heard various accounts concerning them. Some 

 said they were cedars, and others said they were something new, 

 never before seen. 



On June 20, in company with Mr. Karl Hoffman, I set out in 

 search of the supposed grove. Our trail led over the mountains, 

 across the Middle Fork of the American River, to the old, almost 

 deserted mining camp of " Last Chance." Here, after some delay, 

 we found a young miner, Mr. Ferguson, to guide us to the grove. 

 He had been there some five years before, and knew all the country. 



The grove was said to lie about eight miles from " Last Chance," 

 and we found it fully that distance. Our trail, for the most part, lay 

 along heavily wooded ridges, where only occasionally we had 

 glimpses of the outside country. Away to the southeast rose the 

 snowy slopes of Mt. Tallac, bordering Lake Tahoe. The trees, for 

 the most part, were sugar pines — lordly fellows — and during the 

 whole eight miles we saw only one cut tree. The miner and the 

 " shake-hunter" had never despoiled this forest. Only a few chip- 

 munks, jays and chickadees were heard to break the grand monotony 

 of forest solitude. 



On a slight rise of ground in the forest our guide left us and pro- 

 ceeded on alone. He came back in a short time with the welcome 

 news that he had found the grove. We followed him some distance 

 down the slope over a rich carpet of pine needles, until he came to 

 a canon — not a very steep one — cut into the slate formation. Then 

 we came upon the grove, the most northern known, I believe, of 

 Sequoia gip^mitea. 



Only six trees are standing, and these do not spread over an acre 

 or two of ground. This is, perhaps, the last stand made by Sequoia 

 giganiea, and for a thousand years or more this grove has beaten 

 back the fierce onslaughts of fire, storm and cold. 



