THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



is a family of them, consisting of ninety members, 

 scattered over a space of about forty acres ; and 

 the smallest and feeblest among them is not less 

 than fifteen feet in diameter. You can scarcely 

 believe your eyes as you look up. to their crowns, 

 which, in the most vigorous of the colossal stems, 

 only begin at the height of a hundred and fifty or 

 two hundred feet from the ground.*'* 



Each member of this wonderful group has re- 

 ceived a familiar name, in many cases indicating 

 in its homely associations the rude mind of the 

 backwoodsman. A hotel has been built close to 

 the group, which has become a scene of attraction 

 to visitors from all parts of the country. An 

 enumeration of a few of the more prominent trees, 

 with their statistics, will enable us better to form 

 an idea of the scene, particularly if we take the 

 monument of London as a standard of compari- 

 son, whose total height is two hundred and two 

 feet, and fifteen feet the diameter of the column at 

 the plinth. 



Leaving the hotel, and proceeding into the 

 grove, the visitor presently comes to the "Miner's 

 Cabin," a tree measuring eighty feet in circum- 

 ference, and attaining three hundred feet in height. 

 The "cabin,"' or burnt cavity, measures seventeen 

 feet across its entrance, and extends upwards'of 

 forty feet Continuing our ramble, admiring the 

 luxuriant growth of underwood, consisting of 

 firs, cedars, dog-wood, and hazel, we come to the 

 "Three Graces." These splendid trees appear to 

 grow, and perhaps do grow, from one root, and 

 form the most beautiful group in the forest, tow- 

 ering side by side to the height of two hundred 

 and ninety feet, tapering symmetrically from their 

 base upwards. Their united circumference 

 * Mollhuusen's "Journey to the Paciflc," ii. p. 363. 

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