208 



THE FORESTER. 



September, 



THE CHARACTER AND NUMBER OF 

 GROVES OF SEQUOIA GIGANTIA.* 



Some have attempted to 'separate the 

 various tracts, on the basis of acreage, into 

 two classes "groves" and "forests." 

 This is not a natural division, and we will 

 use only the term "groves." Like other 

 species the Big Tree favors certain expo- 

 sures, soils and elevations. The western 

 slopes of the Sierras being furrowed by 

 large stream valleys or profound barran- 

 cas, and bearing the disturbing marks of 

 many local but extinct glaciers, the pre- 

 ferred elevation and soil of the Big Tree is 

 often interrupted, and this interruption is 

 still more often emphasized by the racial 

 and aristocratic tendency to reproduce the 

 species but sparingly. Hence the trees as 

 individuals appear scattered, and are con- 

 fined to irregular and isolated tracts. 

 These tracts are often on two slopes of a 

 lateral spur, springing westward (east- 

 ward also, in the southern part of their 

 range) from the main divides of the Sier- 

 ras ; and the two groves sometimes ap- 

 proach or connect over a timbered gap on 

 this divide. A careful consideration leads 

 me to the enumeration of thirty-three 

 distinct groves of the Sequoia gigantia, 

 eight of them north and twenty-five of 

 them south of the Kings River. Some 

 eighteen or twenty of these are in the 

 fairly well marked pairs mentioned above, 

 where the trees cling to the brooksides or 

 steep hollows in the true timber belt of the 

 Sierras, but well toward its lower border. 

 Another set of them occupy the upper 

 canyons of the river forks, and still another 

 limited benches or plateaus found at 

 the big tree altitude 5,500-8,500 feet. 



MILLING AMONG THE BIG TREES. 



Of the northern group, the Mariposa 

 :i group of the second or third class be- 

 to the State of California; three 

 rs, one of six trees, one of thirty, and 



* It is most unfortunate that scientific nomen- 

 ature has made such a mess of the most re- 

 markable species of tree in the world, that pur- 

 in pnority must always disagree as to its 

 Hence I shall use for the read- 

 s of Tin-; 1 < .HESTER the name of S.eieantia 

 winch is the best known. ' 



one of fifty trees apparently belong to the 

 National Government. The Madera grove 

 has been largely cut over ; while the two 

 Calaveras groves, one containing ninety 

 the other nearly fourteen hundred trees, 

 and historically worth to the world more 

 than all the others, are, as every one 

 knows, now held for lumbering or specu- 

 lation. 



Generally speaking the larger part of 

 the Sequoia acreage south of the Kings 

 River is in private hands, but it is an in- 

 teresting and an important fact, known to 

 but few, that through the operation of the 

 lien-land law some private claims contain- 

 ing a considerable acreage of the Sequoia 

 have gone back to the United States dur- 

 ing the past year in the Tule River region. 

 Of the important groves those of the 

 Kings River proper are owned by the 

 Sanger Lumber Company. These are 

 three in number, and the Converse Basin 

 grove is said to be the largest grove in ex- 

 istence. Much of these three groves has 

 been lumbered off, and there appears no 

 hope of saving any from the saw. The 

 Kings River mills are first-class in capac- 

 ity and run night and day during the open 

 season. The General Grant Park, scarcely 

 to be dissociated from the western-most 

 of the Kings River Groves, contains four 

 sections only (2,560 acres). It is nearly 

 cut in twain by two private claims amount- 

 ing to 320 acres, but there is no mill on 

 them. Southwest of the Park is the Red- 

 wood Creek grove, all in the hands of a 

 considerable number of private owners. 

 There was formerly some lumbering: here, 



1 . 



but none has existed for many years. 

 Next comes the beautiful Sequoia Na- 

 tional Park, of seven townships, stretch- 

 ing entirely across the fan-shaped drain- 

 age basin of the Kaweah, and containing 

 six, we might say eight, tracts of big trees, 

 five of which are among the noblest in ex- 

 istence. The " Giant Forest" is the best 

 known of these. Three of the five men- 

 tioned have not an acre of private claims. 

 The Giant Forest, reputed to contain 

 2,500 acres, has apparently something 

 over one-fourth of its area in private 

 claims; but the amount of Sequoia thereon 

 is more apparent than real, as the Giant 



