THE SEQUOIAS OR BIG TREES 41 



average run of plants. The cones, especially, are very common in 

 the geological record, and one of the common methods of preserva- 

 tion is as ferruginized mud casts, that is the fine mud penetrated 

 and completely surrounded the axis and scales of the cone, the 

 chemistry of slow decay caused an impregnation of salts of iron 

 thus rendering the cones more resistant than the matrix. I have 

 collected such cones from the Lower Cretaceous of Maryland, from 

 the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas and from the early Tertiary of 

 Dakota. Such cones almost exactly like those of the existing 

 redwood can be found in abundance in the coulees of the present 

 arid badlands of western Dakota where they have weathered out 

 of the surrounding rocks and where their presence indicates a very 

 different environment and climate once where now the dry farmer 

 faces often heart breaking failure. 



The big trees, as both of our sequoias deserve to be called, have 

 furnished a theme for song and story and have been a Mecca for 

 the tourist for so long a time that any remarks regarding the size 

 or longevity of the far famed trees of Mariposa and Calaveras may 

 seem trite. Their present isolation — for they are but few in 

 number and do not seem to be holding their own in the struggle 

 with nature and the cupidity of civilization — but adds to their 

 majestic grandeur. 



To the traveller who journeys to California and for the first 

 time stands in their mighty presence many questions may suggest 

 themselves — the number is the I.Q. of our civilization. How long 

 has it taken these giants of the forest to reach up some 400 feet 

 above mother earth? Were they created thus? Were they just 

 entering upon a career when the red-man's fire or the pale-face's 

 ax checked them, or are they the survivors of a long existing line, 

 struggling to maintain themselves in their last mountain strong- 

 hold? 



The records of their descent are locked up in the rocks and clays 

 of the world, bits of branches, cones and pieces of wood that floated 

 down to the ancient seas and were entombed in the sand and mud, 

 to become preserved as fossils for the edification of later ages. 

 Kxploration has unearthed a part of this record. Sequoia remains 



