THE SEQUOIAS OR BIG TREES 55 



could carry the genealogy back several million more years, almost 

 to the coal period. 



And yet the vicissitudes of time have not succeeded in wholly 

 obhterating these ancient records preserved in the great book of 

 history whose torn pages are the sohd rock, and we are able to 

 decipher a line here and a broken chapter there, gradually piecing 

 together the main facts of the story, the reading of which becomes 

 not only a labor of love, but a task of the most absorbing interest. 



That we do not treasure the sequoias or any of our forest trees 

 sufficiently is a reflection upon our democracy. I sometimes wish 

 we moderns were less pragmatic and that our bump of reverence 

 was less vestigial for then not only the redwoods but all of our trees 

 might become as sacred as they deserve to be and even a lumber 

 trust might hesitate to turn these abodes of the gods into waste 

 places. Our forests hke the stars or the changing season are won- 

 ders whose lessons and value have become dimmed because of long 

 familiarity. If we saw them but once or twice in a hfetime they 

 would be treasured accordingly. One has but to dwell in a tree- 

 less desert for months to have awakened such a love for the forests 

 as will last forever. 



The accomanying map of the world shows the tiny black area on 

 our Pacific coast where the sequoia has hngered into modern times, 

 the lined area the region over which it spread during its past history, 

 and the arrows indicate the probable directions of radiation. 



