302 Recreations of a Sportsman 



I once saw, to the shame of man, a dancing 

 platform formed of a single Sequoia semper- 

 virens, the giant redwood of the coast. The tree 

 had been cut down by some vandal back in the 

 fifties, but around the edge of the stump shoots 

 had grown out, which had attained the size of 

 large trees, forming a perfect playroom with the 

 sky as a roof. Such an illustration gives a definite 

 idea of the size of a tree, and so the great mal- 

 treated Wawona which has an arch cut through 

 its heart conveys a graphic idea of size and age. 

 This splendid trunk has attained an enormous 

 size. Its roots, or the lower rim of the bark, 

 seem to form great rolls of chocolate-colored bark, 

 and as they enter the ground convey a graphic 

 impression of age and stability. The coach 

 literally rolls through its very heart, the most 

 notable tunnel in the world. 



One of the most interesting trees is the Tele- 

 scope tree, a lofty and ancient pile that still 

 lives, though its very heart seems to have been 

 eaten out, and its top blasted, perhaps by light- 

 ning. It might have been dead a thousand 

 years, judging by its size, but the top has thrown 

 out a few branches, diminutive in comparison 

 to the size of the tree, whose magnitude can be 

 appreciated by comparing it to the forest of 

 smaller trees growing about it. These are of 

 extraordinary size, yet they could be bundled 

 into tens and twenties and then not equal the 



