146 ESSAYS. 



inflexible and changeless. Nor need Nature be likened to a 

 statue, or a cast in rigid bronze, but rather to an organism, 

 with play and adaptability of parts, and life and even soul 

 informing the whole. Under the former view, Nature would 

 be " the faultless monster which the world ne'er saw," but in- 

 scrutable as the Sphinx, whom it were vain, or worse, to ques- 

 tion of the whence and whither. Under the other, the per- 

 fection of Nature, if relative, is multifarious and ever renewed ; 

 and much that is enigmatical now may find explanation in 

 some record of the past. 



That the two species of Redwood we are contemplating 

 originated as they are and where they are, and for the part 

 they are now playing, is, to say the least, not a scientific sup- 

 position, nor in any sense a probable one. Nor is it more 

 likely that they are destined to play a conspicuous part in the 

 future, or that they would have done so, even if the Indian's 

 fires and the white man's axe had spared them. The Red- 

 wood of the coast (Sequoia sempervirens) had the stronger 

 hold upon existence, forming as it did large forests through- 

 out a narrow belt about three hundred miles in length, and 

 being so tenacious of life that every large stump sprouts into 

 a copse. But it does not pass the Bay of Monterey, nor cross 

 the line of Oregon, although so grandly developed not far be- 

 low it. The more remarkable Sequoia gigantea of the Sierra 

 exists in numbers so limited that the separate groves may be 

 reckoned upon the fingers, and the trees of most of them have 

 been counted, except near their southern limit, where they are 

 said to be more copious. A species limited in individuals 

 holds its existence by a precarious tenure ; and this has a foot- 

 hold only in a few sheltered spots, of a happy mean in tem- 

 perature, and locally favored with moisture in summer. Even 

 there, for some reason or other, the Pines with which they are 

 associated (Pinus Lambertiana and P.ponderosa), the Firs 

 (Abies gra?idis and A. magnified), and even the Incense- 

 Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens) possess a great advantage, 

 and, though they strive in vain to emulate their size, wholly 

 overpower the Sequoias in numbers. " To him that hath 

 shall be given." The force of numbers eventually wins. At 



