tup: sequoia 293 



With these interesting trees, forming the largest 

 of the northern groves, I stopped only a week, 

 for I had far to go before the fall of the snow. 

 The hermit seemed to cling 1 to me and tried to 

 make me promise to winter with him after the 

 season's work was done. Brownie had to be got 

 home, however, and other work awaited me, 

 therefore I could only promise to stop a day or 

 two on my way back to Yosemite and give him 

 the forest news. 



The next two weeks were spent in the wide 

 basin of the San Joaquin, climbing innumer- 

 able ridges and surveying the far-extending sea 

 of pines and firs. But not a single Sequoia 

 crown appeared among them all, nor any trace 

 of a fallen trunk, until I had crossed the south 

 divide of the basin, opposite Dinky Creek, one of 

 the northmost tributaries of Kings River. On 

 this stream there is a small grove, said to have 

 been discovered a few years before my visit by 

 two hunters in pursuit of a wounded bear. Just 

 as I was fording one of the branches of Dinky 

 Creek I met a shepherd, and when I asked him 

 whether he knew anything about the Big Trees of 

 the neighborhood he replied, " I know all about 

 them, for I visited them only a few days ago and 

 pastured my sheep in the grove." He was fresh 

 from the East, and as this was his first summer in 

 the Sierra I was curious to learn what impression 

 the Sequoias had made on him. When I asked 



