144 ESS A YS. 



cast a flicker of shadow upon the summit of the pyramid of 

 Cheops. Yet the oldest of them doubtless grew from seed 

 which 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 

 can sensibly antedate the Christian era. 



Nor was I much impressed with an attraction of man's 

 adding. That the more remarkable of these trees should bear 

 distinguishing appellations seems proper enough; but the 

 tablets of personal names which are affixed to many of them 

 in the most visited groves — as if the memory of more or less 

 notable people of our day might be made more enduring by 

 the juxtaposition — do suggest some incongruity. When we 

 consider that a hand's breadth at the circumference of any one 

 of the venerable trunks so placarded has recorded in annual 

 lines the lifetime of the individual thus associated with it, one 

 may question whether the next hand's breadth may not meas- 

 ure the fame of some of the names thus ticketed for adventi- 

 tious immortality. Whether it be the man or the tree that is 

 honored in the connection, probably either would live as long, 

 in fact and in memory, without it. 



One notable thing about these Sequoia trees is their isola- 

 tion. Most of the trees associated with them are of peculiar 

 species, and some of them are nearly as local. Yet every 

 Pine, Fir, and Cypress in California is in some sort familiar, 

 because it has near relatives in other parts of the world. But 

 the Eedwoods have none. The Redwood — including in that 

 name the two species of "Big-trees " — belongs to the general 

 Cypress family, but is sui generis. Thus isolated systemati- 

 cally, and extremely isolated geographically, and so wonderful 

 in size and port, they more than other trees suggest questions. 



Were they created thus local and lonely, denizens of Cali- 

 fornia only ; one in limited numbers in a few choice spots on 

 the Sierra Nevada, the other along the Coast Range from the 

 Bay of Monterey to the frontiers of Oregon ? Are they ver- 

 itable Melchizedeks, without pedigree or early relationship, 

 and possibly fated to be without descent ? 



Or are they now coming upon the stage — or rather were 



