110 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



eight hundred years old, is found that is ten or 

 even twelve feet in diameter and two hundred 

 and forty feet high, with a magnificent crown 

 seventy feet wide. David Douglas, who discov- 

 ered " this most beautiful and immensely grand 

 tree " in the fall of 1826 in southern Oregon, 

 says that the largest of several that had been 

 blown down, "at three feet from the ground 

 was fifty-seven feet nine inches in circumference" 

 (or fully eighteen feet in diameter) ; " at one 

 hundred and thirty-four feet, seventeen feet five 

 inches ; extreme length, two hundred and forty- 

 five feet." Probably for fifty-seven we should 

 read thirty-seven for the base measurement, 

 which would make it correspond with the other 

 dimensions ; for none of this species with any- 

 thing like so great a girth has since been seen. 

 A girth of even thirty feet is uncommon. A 

 fallen specimen that I measured was nine feet 

 three inches in diameter inside the bark at four 

 feet from the ground, and six feet in diameter 

 at a hundred feet from the ground. A compar- 

 atively young tree, three hundred and thirty 

 years old, that had been cut down, measured 

 seven feet across the stump, was three feet three 

 inches in diameter at a height of one hundred 

 and fifty feet, and two hundred and ten feet in 

 length. 



The trunk is a round, delicately tapered shaft 

 with finely furrowed purplish-brown bark, usually 



