FORESTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



turns to the Mariposa Grove in the Yosemite Park, 

 which is on the whole a more interesting assem- 

 blage of trees. On beholding a Big Iree the ob- 

 server is at once impressed with the enormous bulk 

 of the trunk, which holds its diameter well upward 

 with a diminution often inappreciable to the eye, 

 and with the somewhat fluted red-fibrous bark, 

 which is one-half to two feet in thickness. The 

 trunk more truly simulates a Grecian column than 

 does that of any other tree, all the more in that 

 the crown in the adult is small, rounded, and with 

 branches remarkable for their shortness and thick- 

 ness. (See PL XXII.) 



In diameter the trunks average ten to twenty 

 feet, and in height one hundred and twenty-five 

 to two hundred and fifty feet.* While the average 

 age of adult trees is from 500 to 1400 years, many 

 individuals live to be 2000 to 2100 years. The two 

 highest ages known to the writer, which have been 

 definitely determined, are 2177 and 3148 years. The 

 maximum of possible error in the determination in 

 the case of either would not range beyond five or 

 six years. Figures for greater ages thus far pub- 

 lished are not, so far as known to the writer, the 

 results of accurate studies, but are based on calcu- 

 lations resting on diameter measurements, or on 

 partial counts, or on a frank admiration of the im- 

 posing bulk and stature of these forest giants. 



By well-nigh universal consent Sequoia gigantea 

 is regarded as the most remarkable member of the 

 earth's silva. Its great age, its enormous bulk, its 

 restricted habitat, its somewhat precarious biologi- 

 cal foothold in the northerly part of its range, and 

 its plain relationship with the dominant types of 

 the Miocene flora, combine to give this species a 

 unique interest among all the trees of the earth. 



While the Big Tree is found, as described above, 

 in "groves" or "forests," and is not scattered singly 

 through the Sierran forest belt, it is always asso- 

 ciated in its restricted areas with typical Sierran 

 conifers, such as yellow pine, sugar pine, incense 

 cedar and white nr. These trees are so tall and 

 at the same time so ponderous that the eye of the 

 traveler, becoming accustomed to trees of vast pro- 

 portions, is likely, after his journey through the 

 forest, to be disappointed on arrival at the groves 

 of the Big Tree. For this effect of dwarfing, the 



* A tree in the Calaveras Grove is 325 feet high. No 

 taller individuals, so far as known to the writer, have been 

 accurately measured. The General Sherman tree in the Giant 

 Forest is 279.9 feet high and 27.4 feet in diameter at six feet 

 above the ground. The McKinley tree in the Giant Forest is 

 291 feet high. 



161 



