252 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



there 39 miles the first and 26 the next, over villainous 

 bad roads in a vehicle called a stage-coach, four horses. 

 Carries twelve, with a high box seat which we secured. 

 It should be called a bone-shaker, for it jolts one up 

 and down and all over the place. The road runs 

 along the sides of precipices, and the drivers go along 

 apparently regardless of all danger. The food at the 

 hotels is execrable, and the companions all western 

 Americans. This is the bad side, but no words can 

 describe the good side. You will remember my mania 

 for pines long ago at Powerscourt and my great studies 

 of dear old P.'s books. Well, fancy my joy driving for 

 days through the homes of these noble trees, gazing 

 right and left at trees rearing their heads on mighty 

 columns 20 and 25 feet in circumference on all sides of 

 us. Then the great interest of making out what they 

 were, for I can assure you the difference between an 

 infant pine in a pleasure ground of twenty or thirty years 

 old and a veteran of the same tree in his native home, 

 five hundred years old and 250 feet high, is very great. 

 To give you one instance, as we got higher into the 

 mountains, we came across a very noble true pine, the 

 monarch of the forests he grew in. I knew I was 

 familiar with his foliage, but for a long time could not 

 make him out. His cones are from I foot to 20 inches. 

 At last it dawned on me, and what was he but Pinus 

 lambertiana^ the pine of which we cut down so many 

 at the Jouvence, and of which we have left one. It is 

 the grandest tree you ever saw. But all these giants 

 were dwarfed when we came to the 'big trees,' i.e. 

 the Wellingtonia, on Sunday. When I tell you that 

 the * Grizzly Giant ' stands on the same ground as the 

 Jouvence, you can fancy something of his size. I have 

 written a full account in my Journal which you will see. 

 There are about six hundred of these old monsters, and 



