180 ANTIQUITY OF GREAT SEQUOIAS. 



hue ; their great height, girth, and magnificent pro- 

 portions all contribute to create an impression upon 

 the beholder which can never be effaced. These groves 

 are however now so well known (being visited by 

 thousands of tourists every season), that it would be 

 out of place to enter into any detailed description of 

 them in these pages, as such can be found better 

 detailed in guide books and tourists' narratives. 



We would not, however, have the reader forget the 

 vast antiquity which these trees represent in the world's 

 history: it has been variously estimated at from 3000 

 to 4000 years perhaps more. These venerable patri- 

 archs of the forest were probably some of them gigantic 

 trees at the time of the Christian era and may still 

 bid defiance to the storms of time for thousands of 

 years to come. Their great enemy seems to have 

 been, not the weight of years and the natural decay 

 due to age: but rather the destruction wrought by 

 forest fires, which seem to have done more than any- 

 thing else to lay the giant specimens low and injure the 

 beauty of those still upstanding. 



The vitality of these trees seems to be something 

 almost incredible, as the fresh bark overgrowing charred 

 cavities seems to prove : the enormous thickness of the 

 bark being such, that they can bid defiance to forest 

 fires in a way no ordinary tree could hope to do. 

 Time, the destroyer, has in all other respects evidently 

 dealt gently with these aged trees they have stood 

 for thousands of years already, and long may they 

 continue to do so, superior to all the accidents of time 

 and change. 



Heretofore we have said nothing of the trees of the 



