SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 207 



wonder of the world. As I stood in their shade, in 

 the groves of Mariposa and Calaveras, and again 

 under the canopy of the commoner redwood, raised 

 on columns of such majestic height and ample girth, 

 it occurred to me that I could not do better than to 

 share with you, upon this occasion, some of the 

 thoughts which possessed my mind. In their devel- 

 opment they may, perhaps, lead us up to questions of 

 considerable scientiiic interest. 



I shall not detain you with any remarks — which 

 would now be trite — upon the size or longevity of 

 these far-famed Seqnoia-trees, or of the sugar-pines, 

 incense-cedar, and firs associated with them, of which 

 even the prodigious bulk of the dominating Sequoia 

 does not sensibly diminish the grandeur. Although 

 no account and no photographic representation of 

 either species of the far-famed Sequoia-trees gives any 

 adequate impression of their singular majesty — still 

 less of their beauty — yet my interest in them did not 

 culminate merely or mainly in considerations of their 

 size and age. Other trees, in other parts of the world, 

 may claim to be older. Certain Australian gum- 

 trees (Eucalypti) are said to be taller. Some, we are 

 told, rise so high that they might even cast a flicker of 

 shadow upon the summit of the Pyramid of Cheops. 

 Yet the oldest of them doubtless grew from seed 

 w^hich was shed long after the names of the pyramid- 

 builders had been forgotten. So far as we can judge 

 from the actual counting of the layers of several trees, 

 no Sequoia now alive sensibly antedates the Christian 

 era. 



Nor was I much impressed with an attraction of 



