1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



145 



GIANT EEDWOOD. 



"Giant trees, 

 Chiklren of eldei- time in whose devotion 

 The chainless winds still come, and ever come. 

 To drink their odors, and their mighty swinging 

 To hear — an old and solemn harmony." — Shelley. 



We copy from a new work on "The Trees of 

 Jlmerica," by Dr. PiPEE, of Woburn, Mass., and 

 by his consent, the above splendid specimen of the 

 vegetable kingdom, the Giant Redwood of the 

 Snowy Mountains of California. This tree is re- 

 ported to have been four hundred and ffly feet 

 high. It is not represented in our engraving as en- 

 tire, as when sketched a portion of the top was 

 broken off. 



Dr. Hunter, in speaking of one the gigantic 

 English oaks, which measured forty-eight feet in 

 circumference, says, "When compared to this, all 

 other trees are but children of the forest. This 

 enormous oak would scarcely make a branch for 

 one of these gigantic Californians. A drawing of 

 this oak and the big elm on Boston Common are 

 shown in the plate, dra-rni on the same scale as the 

 Redwood. 



Dr. F. WlxSLOW, an American traveller, com- 

 municated a graphic description of this tree to the 

 California Farmer, which we introduce here, to- 

 gether with interesting remarks from the Country 

 Gentleman : 



"The Gi-eat Tree, (thus he distinguishes the Se- 

 quoia gigantea,) is peculiar to the Sierra Nevada, 

 and grows no where else on the globe. I may even 

 add, as far as my information extends, that it is 

 enth'ely confined to a narrow basin of 200 acres at 

 most, of which the soil is silicious and strewn with 

 blocks of Lignite. This basin is very damp, and 

 retains here and there pools of water ; some of the 

 largest of the trees extend their roots directly into 

 the stagnant water, or into the brooks. There are 

 more than a hundred which may be considered as 

 having reached the extreme limits of growth which j 

 the species can attain. One of our countrymen, 

 Mr. Blake, measured one, of which the trunk, im- 

 mediately above the root, was 94 feet in circum- 

 ference. Another, which had fallen from old age, 

 or had been uprooted by a tempest, was lying near 

 it, of which the length from the roots to the top of 

 branches M-as 450 feet. A great portion of this 

 monster still exists, and, according to Mr. Lapham, 

 the proprietor of the locality, (and who has un- 

 doubtedly appi'opriated to himself all trees by right 

 of occupation,) at 350 feet from the roots the trunk 

 measured 10 feet in diameter. By its fall, this tree 

 has overthrown another not less colossal, since at 

 the origin of the roots it is 40 feet in diameter. 

 This one, which appeared to me one of the great- 

 est wonders of the forest, and compared with 

 which man is but an imperceptible pigmy, has been 

 hollowed, by means of fire, throughout a considera- 

 ble portion of its length, so as to form an immense 

 wooden tube of a single piece. Its size may be 

 imagined when it is known that one of my compan- 

 ions, two years ago, rode on horseback in the inte- 

 rior of this tree for a distance of 200 feet, without 

 any inconvenience. My companion and myself 

 have frequently entered this tunnel and jirogressed 



some sixty paces, but have been arrested before 

 reaching the end by masses of wood which had fal- 

 len from the ceiling. Near these overthrown giants 

 others still are standing, not inferior to them in 

 size, and of which the height astonishes the behold- 

 er. I can mention three particularly, which, entire- 

 ly isolated, grow near each other so systematically 

 as to appear to have been planted purposely to 

 produce the effect. A fourth is remarkable in hav- 

 ing between 50 and 100 feet from the ground, its 

 trunk divided into three enormous branches of the 

 same size and nearly parallel, extending to a dis- 

 tance of more than 300 feet. Others are distin- 

 guished by the straightness of their trunk, compar- 

 atively as dehcate and erect as that of a pine tree, 

 and which are not less than 350 feet in height. At 

 some distance may be seen a species of knoll rising 

 from the surface of the ground, and which is mere- 

 ly a half-developed knot, the last remains of one of 

 these monsters, which have fallen centuries ago and 

 are now buried under the soil. 



"I am informed by Mr. Lapham, that the wood 

 of one of these trees is remarkable for its very 

 slow decomposition. When freshly cut the fibre 

 is white ; but it soon becomes reddish, and by long 

 exposure to the air acquires a color nearly as dark 

 as Mahogany. Its consistence is rather feeble, 

 nearly resembling the pine or cedar, but the bark 

 covering it differs materially from the latter. It is 

 excessively thick near the foot of the tree, sensibly 

 elastic on pressure, and is readily divided into a 

 mass of fibres closely resembling those constituting 

 the husk of the cocoa-nut, but much finer. About 

 this portion of the trunk it is split in every direc- 

 tion by deep cracks, but at the elevation of 100 or 

 ISO feet, it is almost smooth, and not more than 

 two inches in thickness. At this point the bark is 

 removed from the living tree for exportation. 

 (How can such a sacrilege be tolerated !) A hotel 

 has been built along side of the "Great Tree," the 

 bark of which was exhibited last year at San Fran- 

 cisco, and, on its overturned trunk a sort of ladies' 

 pavilion has been erected, which serves as an ele- 

 gant promenade. In order to fell it the trunk was 

 bored, by means of a very long and powerful augur, 

 with many holes very near to each other and ar- 

 ranged circularly ; but even when almost detached 

 from its bases its immense mass resisted all efforts 

 to overthrow it. Four days subsequently it was 

 blown down by the wind. It shook the earth when 

 it fell, and made for itself a deep furrow in the 

 ground in which it Ues, at this moment, half buried." 



The Country Gentleman adds : 



"Now to read simply of a tree four hundred and 

 fifty feet high, we are struck with large figures, but 

 we can nardly appreciate the height without some 

 comparison. Such a one as that through which 

 the horseback journey was performed, would 

 stretch across a field of twenty-seven rods wide ; if 

 standing in the Niagara chasm at Suspension Bridge, 

 it would tower two hundred feet above the top of 

 the bridge ; if placed in Broadway, New York, at 

 the head of Wall Street, it would overtop Trinity 

 steeple by one hundred and sixty feet, and would 

 be two hundred and thirty feet higher than Bunker 

 Hill monument, Boston ; or two hundred and sev- 

 enty above Washington monument, Baltimore. If 

 cut up for fuel, it would make at least three thou- 

 sand cords, or as much as would be yielded by sixty 

 acres of good woodland. If sawed into two inch 



