and more lamentable ruin. In the course of my explorations 

 twenty-five years ago, I found five sawmills located on or near 

 the lower margin of the Sequoia belt, all of which were cutting 

 more or less Big Tree lumber, which looks like the redwood of 

 the coast, and was sold as redwood. One of the smallest of 

 these mills in the season of 1874 sawed two million feet of 

 Sequoia lumber. Since that time other mills have been built 

 among the Sequoias, notably the large ones on Kings River and 

 the head of the Fresno. The destruction of these grand trees 

 is still going on. 



On the other hand, the Calaveras Grove for forty years has 

 been faithfully protected by Mr. Sperry, and with the excep- 

 tion of the two trees mentioned above is still in primeval beauty. 

 The Tuolumne and Merced groves near Yosemite, the Dinky 

 Creek grove, those of the General Grant National Park and the 

 Sequoia National Park, with several outstanding groves that are 

 nameless on the Kings, Kaweah, and Tule river basins, and 

 included in the Sierra forest reservation, have of late years been 

 partially protected by the Federal Government ; while the well- 

 known Mariposa Grove has long been guarded by the State. 



For the thousands of acres of Sequoia forest outside of the 

 reservation and national parks, and in the hands of lumbermen, 

 no help is in sight. Probably more than three times as many 

 Sequoias as are contained in the whole Calaveras Grove have 

 been cut into lumber every year for the last twenty-six years 

 without let or hindrance, and with scarce a word of protest on 

 the part of the public, while at the first whisper of the bonding 

 of the Calaveras Grove to lumbermen most everybody rose in 

 alarm. This righteous and lively indignation on the part of 

 Californians after the long period of deathlike apathy, in which 

 they have witnessed the destruction of other groves unmoved, 

 seems strange until the rapid growth that right public opinion 

 has made during the last few years is considered and the peculiar 

 interest that attaches to the Calaveras giants. They were the 

 first discovered and are best known. Thousands of travelers 

 from every country have come to pay them tribute of admiration 

 and praise, their reputation is world-wide, and the names of 

 great men have long been associated with them Washington, 

 Humboldt, Torrey and Gray, Sir Joseph Hooker, and others. 



