SCENERY 81 



gigardea only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, be- 

 tA\een latitudes 34° and 41°. The tree h.ns the great pecu- 

 liarity' that it bears two kinds of leaves : those on the young 

 trees, and on the lower branches of larger ones, are about five- 

 eighths of an inch long and an eighth wide, and are set in pairs 

 opposite each other, on little stems; the other kinds of leaves, 

 growing on the branches which have borne flowers, are trian- 

 gular, about an eighth of an inch long, and they lie close down 

 to the stem. The cones are not much larger than a hen's Qgg^ 

 whereas the cones of many smaller conifers of the coast are 

 larger than pine-apples. The seeds of the Sequoia gigantea 

 are not more than a quarter of an inch long, a sixth wide, and 

 almost as thin as writing-paper. The bark is reddish-brown 

 in color, of a coarse, dry, stringy, elastic substance, and very 

 thick — on the largest trees not less than eighteen inches. The 

 wood is soft, elastic, straight-grained, free-splitting, light when 

 dry, and red in color. It bears a close resemblance to red cedar, 

 but the grain is not quite so even. The wood is very durable^^ 

 The mammoth tree grows in a deep, fertile soil, and is al- 

 ways surrounded by a dense growth of other evergreens, such 

 as various species of pine, fir, v«;pruce, and Californian cedar. 

 The scenery in these forests is beautiful. The trees grow very 

 close together ; and the trunks, usually from a foot to two feet 

 in diameter, rise in perfect perpendicularity, and with little or 

 no diminution of size, more than a hundred feet without a 

 limb : and while all is perfect stillness and rest and shadow on 

 the ground, the traveller, looking to where the sunbeams are 

 perceptible here and there on the thick foliage, can see the 

 dexible tops swinging from side to side in the roaring moun- 

 tain-breeze. The soil, being never visited by the sun, is always 

 moist, and produces a luxuriant and beautiful little undergrowth 

 of mosses, flowers, and berries. When in such forests, I have 

 at times compared myself to a merman, who, while at the bot- 

 tom of the ocean, amid a large growth of queer sea-weed, and 

 surrounded by beautiful shells and the treasures of a thou- 

 sand wrecks, should look from his abode of peace, and see 

 4* ^ 



