148 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



curiosity, and here we have numerous groves of them. Cal- 

 averas County has two ; Tuolumne, two ; Mariposa, three ; and 

 Fresno and Tulare, many. 



The Calaveras Big Tree Grove, containing one hundred and 

 fifty trees, ninety of them more than fifteen feet in diameter, 

 was tfre first discovered, is nearest the center of the State, is 

 more conveniently accessible than the others, has better ac- 

 commodations for tourists, and attracts the greatest number of 

 visitors. There are in this grove ten trees thirty feet in diam- 

 eter, 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 " Horseback ride," one of the no- 

 tabilities of the place, is a hollow trunk, through which a man 

 can ride upright on horseback, seventy -five feet. 



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

 ference and three hundred feet high, was cut down. Five 

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

 augers. On the stump, which has been smoothed off, there 

 have been dancing-parties and theatrical performances ; and for 

 a time a newspaper, called the Big Tree Bulletin, was printed 

 there. An examination of its rings showed that it was about 

 2,000 years old. 



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 flour- 

 ishing 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. Seven years passed before it died. 



In many of the trees in all the groves, hollows are burned 

 at the foot, and some of them have been burned so as to stand 

 on three legs. One of these, in the Calaveras grove, called 

 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," has an open space under it of more 

 than a dozen feet square. The largest trees seem to end ab- 

 ruptly at the top, having been broken off by the snow, which 



