THE BIG TREES OF THE MARIPOSA GROVE, CALIFORNIA 



, 3^^ sequoias of California, the tree monarchs of the world, are one of the few surviving links which 

 establish the kinship of the cypress and the fir. Once they were widely diffused over the earth. During 

 the ice Age they seem to have been exterminated except in the Cahfornia mountains, where they never 

 come closer to sea level than 5,000 feet and are not able to grow above 8,400 feet. They sometimes attain 

 a height of 320 feet and trunk diameter of 35 feet. 



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