346 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



mammoth trees. This supremacy is now broken 

 down in favour of the " big trees " of AustraHa, 

 although it must be confessed that it is very difficult 

 to determine what arc the reliable dimensions of 

 trees recorded in both countries. 



In a work of authority^ it is said that the big 

 trees {Scqiicia gigantcd) extend along a line of 

 two hundred and forty miles, and moreover, that 

 the highest yet discovered, which is in the Cala- 

 veras Grove, is three hundred and twenty-five feet. 

 The grizzly giant of the Mariposi Grove is ninety- 

 three feet in circumference at the ground. These 

 dimensions have been greatly exceeded by report, 

 but the sensational heights of four hundred feet 

 and upwards are believed to be wholly unreli- 

 able. Dr. C. F. Winslow, in " The California 

 Farmer," has written that " the trees of very large 

 dimensions number considerably more than one 

 hundred. Mr. Blake measured one ninety-four feet 

 in circumference at the root, the side of which had 

 been partly burnt by contact with another tree, the 

 head of which had fallen against it. The latter can 

 be measured four hundred and fifty feet from its head 

 to its root. A large portion of this fallen monster 

 is .still to be seen and examined ; and, by the 

 measurement of Mr. Lapham, it is said to be ten 



' Watson's "Botany of California," vol. ii. p. 117. 



