Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



35 



It has a circumference of 103 feet ; 200 feet from the ground it is not 

 less than 70 feet around, and even with its crown broken off it is 280 

 feet high. 



It was of such trees as this, which, scarred by fire, broken off by 

 storms or lightning, yet tower aloft in a majesty and beauty almost 

 undimmed, as if gifted with eternal life, that John Muir wrote : 



"So exquisitely harmonious and finely balanced are even the 

 very mightiest of these monarchs of the woods, in all their propor- 

 tions and circumstances, that never is anything overgrown or 

 monstrous looking about them. * * * No other tree in the 

 Sierra forest has foliage so densely massed, nor presents outlines 

 so firmly drawn and so steadily subordinate to a special type. A 

 knotty, ungovernable-looking branch, five to eight feet thick, may 



Here is the redwood forest after it has been "developed" by our 

 wasteful methods. 



be seen pushing out abruptly from the smooth trunk, as if sure to 

 throw the regular curve into confusion, but as soon as the general 

 outline is reached, it stops short and dissolves in spreading bosses 

 of law-abiding sprays, just as if every tree were growing beneath 

 some huge, invisible bell glass, against whose sides every branch was 

 being pressed and molded, yet somehow indulging in so many 

 small departures from the regular form that there is still an 

 appearance of freedom. 



"As soon as any accident happens to the crown of these Sequoias, 

 such as being stricken off by lightning or broken by storms, then 

 the branches beneath the wound, no matter how situated, seem to 

 be excited, like a colony of bees that have lost their queen, and 

 become anxious to repair the damage. Limbs that have grown 

 outward for centuries at right angles to the trunk begin to turn 



