174 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



their first contemporaries. There is good evidence 

 that the sequoias once covered a large part of North 

 America reaching well up toward the pole. The 

 coming of the glacial ice and the resulting change 

 of climate wiped them out with the exception of the 

 small groups still existing on the western slopes of 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 



Among the magnificent sequoia specimens of the 

 Mariposa and Calaveras Groves in the Yosemite 

 National Park are direct descendants of the an- 

 cient trees which survived the polar ice. The largest 

 are considerably over four hundred feet tall and 

 over a hundred feet in circumference at the base. 

 Good average mature sticks point up for two hun- 

 dred and fifty to three hundred feet. It would 

 take six lusty elms mounted one above the other to 

 reach this height. 



The many pictures of these trees with men and 

 horses grouped about their bases in pigmy atti- 

 tudes give vague ideas of their immensity, but per- 

 haps the impression becomes more concrete when 

 one learns that a recently felled specimen was con- 

 verted into 3000 fence posts, 650,000 shingles 

 (enough for 70 to 80 houses) and 100 cords of 

 firewood, which no one could use because of the 

 expense of hauling it away. After this there still 



