82 RESOUKCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



the surface of the water, far above him, raging in a terrific 

 storm. 



Many young trees of the Sequoia gigantea, produced from 

 the seed, are growing in gardens in California, in the Eastern 

 states, and in Eiii'ope. 



The mammoth tree is found only in a few small groves, of 

 which six or seven are known, though probably there are 

 many in unexplored parts of the Sierra Nevada. Three of 

 these groves are in Mariposa county, one in Calaveras, one in 

 Tuolumne, and one in Tulare. 



The three Mariposa groves are within two miles of each 

 other. The second one in size contains eighty-six trees ; the 

 third thirty-five. The Tuolumne grove contains ten trees, one 

 or two of which are said to be thirty-five feet in diameter. 



The Calaveras mammoth grove was the first discovered, and 

 attracts the greatest number of visitors. There are in this 

 grove ten trees thirty feet in diameter, and eighty-two between 

 fifteen and thirty, making ninety-two over fifteen feet through. 

 One of the trees, which is down, must have been four hundred 

 and fifty feet high and forty feet in diameter. The " Horse- 

 back ride," one of the notabilities of the place, is a hollow 

 trunk, which a man can ride uj^right through on horseback, 

 seventv-five feet. 



ft/ 



In 1854, one of the largest trees, nmety-two feet in circum- 

 ference and three hundred feet high, Avas cut down. Five men 

 worked twenty-two days in cutting through it with large au- 

 gers. On the stump, which has been smoothed ofi", there have 

 been dancing-parties and theatrical performances; and for a 

 time a newspaper, called the JBig Tree Bulletin^ was printed 

 there. 



At the same time that this tree was cut down, another was 

 stripped of its bark for a distance of one hundred and sixteen 

 feet from the ground. This tree continued green and flourish- 

 ing two and a half years after being thus denuded, and did not 

 begin to show signs of dying until a very hard frost came in 

 the winter of 1856-57. Although seven years have passed 



