THE SEQUOIA 2G9 



and moisture and sunshine abound all the 

 year. Nevertheless it is not easy to account for 

 the colossal size of the Sequoias. The largest 

 are about three hundred feet high and thirty feet 

 in diameter. Who of all the dwellers of the 

 plains and prairies and fertile home forests of 

 round-headed oak and maple, hickory and elm, 

 ever dreamed that earth could bear such growths, 

 — trees that the familiar pines and firs seem to 

 know nothing about, lonely, silent, serene, with 

 a physiognomy almost godlike ; and so old, thou- 

 sands of them still living had already counted 

 their years by tens of centuries when Columbus 

 set sail from Spain and were in the vigor of youth 

 or middle age when the star led the Chaldean 

 sages to the infant Saviour's cradle ! As far as 

 man is concerned they are the same yesterday, 

 to-day, and forever, emblems of permanence. 



No description can give any adequate idea of 

 their singular majesty, much less of their beauty. 

 Excepting the sugar-pine, most of their neigh- 

 bors with pointed tops seem to be forever shout- 

 ing Excelsior, while the Big Tree, though soaring 

 above them all, seems satisfied, its rounded head, 

 poised lightly as a cloud, giving no impression 

 of trying to go higher. Only in youth does it 

 show like other conifers a heavenward yearning, 

 keenly aspiring with a long quick-growing top. 

 Indeed the whole tree for the first century or two, 

 or until a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet 



