MARIPOSA. 361 



At Modesta I had to pass the night with no less 

 than seven travelh'ng companions sleeping in the same 

 room, performing the morning ablutions tt la Calif ornie 

 m the open. Here we left the railway and continued 

 our route by carriage as far as Mariposa, a long weary 

 drive of thirteen hours, during which we passed a 

 number of Chinamen with their "cradles," washing gold 

 in the creeks of ancient watercourses. I watched one 

 man for nearly an hour, whilst taking my frugal tiffin 

 on the road side, he working patiently amongst some 

 broken and partly rotten rock, and I saw liim collect 

 about a dollar's worth of gold-dust during that interval. 

 On the following morning I left Mariposa at seven a.m. by 

 dog-cart, the road being heavy, and reached Clarke's 

 Hotel about two p.m., to walk thence through a magni- 

 ficent virgin forest to the home of the celebrated group 

 of Wellmgtonioi or Mammoth trees {Sequoia gigantea). 

 There was quite a grove of them, some of enormous 

 size ; they averaged 150 to 200 feet in height, but one 

 or two must have been between 300 and 350 feet, to a 

 diameter of twenty to thirty feet. They certainly are 

 splendid trees, and well worth the journey ; they run 

 up perfectly straight with a full pyramidal-shaped 

 crown of evergreen, and the soft bark, of a pale 

 cinnamon brown, is often two to three feet thick, not 

 unlike the fibre of cocoanut husk, only much finei*. 



