108 TIMBKR 



cedar ; it varies a good deal, is sometimes brittle and cross 

 grained, sometimes soft and fine grained, but always very 

 durable ; rather liable to split, not generally used for 

 carpentry work in Great Britain, though sometimes for 

 drawer linings and a good deal for shop signs, etc. ; will 

 not take polish. It comes from San Francisco and neigh- 

 bourhood, where it is one of the chief building timbers, 

 in conjunction with yellow and sugar pine, and is also 

 used largely there for panelling as a substitute for 

 plastered walls, and largely for shingles ; it comes to the 

 English market generally in planks of two inches thick 

 and upwards, but, although practically free from sap and 

 not liable to twist or warp, it is not much appreciated there. 

 The colour is a bright, clear red, sometimes reddish yellow, 

 turning darker on exposure, and with thin, nearly white 

 sapwood. The wood is very light, when well dried, weighing 

 only about 18 Ibs. per cubic foot. This tree is rapidly being 

 converted into lumber ; about 35,000,000 cubic feet were cut 

 in 1905. 



The so-called "big trees" of California, formerly called 

 Wellingtonias, now called Sequoia ivasltinytoniana, are found 

 in small groves scattered along the west slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada mountains, amongst the yellow and sugar 

 pine and Douglas fir and the allied species, S. sempervirens, 

 " from the middle fork of the American river to the head 

 of Deer Creek, a distance of 260 miles." The utmost search 

 only reveals ten groups, and the total number of these 

 remarkable trees does not exceed 500. They are, however, 

 unique, the grandest, oldest, and most massive stemmed 

 not quite the tallest in the world. These two Sequoia 

 species are the only remains of the genus of big trees 

 which flourished in the temperate zone of three continents 

 before the glacial epoch, when the great ice wave came 

 down from the north, and one after another the luxuriant 



