230 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



dimensions to a greater altitude ; and although this does 

 not prove it to have been much taller, yet it was in all 

 probability more than 400 feet in height. 



Very absurd statements are made to visitors as to the 

 antiquity of these trees, three or four thousand years being 

 usually given as their age. This is founded on the fact 

 that while many of the large Sequoias are greatly damaged 

 by fire the large pines and firs around them are quite 

 uninjured. As many of these pines are assumed to be 

 near a thousand years old, the epoch of the " great fire " 

 is supposed to be earlier still, and as the Sequoias have 

 have not outgrown the fire-scars in all that time they are 

 supposed to have then arrived at their full growth. But 

 the simple explanation of these trees alone having suffered 

 so much from fire is, that their bark is unusually thick, 

 dry, soft, and fibrous, and it thus catches fire more easily 

 and burns more readily and for a longer time than that of 

 the other coniferse. Forest fires occur continually, and the 

 visible damage done to these trees has probably all occurred 

 in the present century. Professor C. B. Bradley, of the 

 University of California, has carefully counted the rings of 

 annual growth on the stump of the " Pavilion tree," and 

 found them to be 1,240 ; and after considering all that has 

 been alleged as to the uncertainty of this mode of esti- 

 mating the age of a tree, he believes that in the climate 

 of California, in the zone of altitude where these trees grow, 

 the seasons of growth and repose are so strongly marked 

 that the number of annual rings gives an accurate result. 



Other points that have been studied by Professor Bradley 

 are, the reason why there are so few young trees in the 

 groves, and what is the cause of the destruction of the old 

 trees. To take the last point first, these noble trees seem 

 to be singularly free from disease or from decay due to old 

 age. All the trees that have been cut down are solid to 

 the heart, and none of the standing trees show any indica- 

 tions of natural decay. The only apparent cause for their 

 overthrow is the wind, and by noting the direction of a 

 large number of fallen trees it is found that the great 

 majority of them lie more or less towards the south. 

 This is not the direction of the prevalent winds, but many 



