• THE SEQUOIA 297 



my astonishment it was five feet six inches in 

 diameter, and about a hundred and forty feet 

 high. 



On a bed of sandy ground fifteen yards square, 

 which had been occupied by four sugar pines, 

 I counted ninety-four promising seedlings, an 

 instance of Sequoia gaining ground from its 

 neighbors. Here also I noted eighty-six young 

 Sequoias from one to fifty feet high on less than 

 half an acre of ground that had been cleared and 

 prepared for their reception by fire. This was a 

 small bay burned into dense chaparral, showing 

 that fire, the great destroyer of tree life, is some- 

 times followed by conditions favorable for new 

 growths. Sufficient fresh soil, however, is fur- 

 nished for the constant renewal of the forest by 

 the fall of old trees without the help of any other 

 agent, — burrowing animals, fire, flood, landslip, 

 etc., — for the ground is thus turned and stirred 

 as well as cleared, and in every roomy, shady hol- 

 low beside the walls of upturned roots many 

 hopeful seedlings spring up. 



The largest, and as far as I know the oldest, of 

 all the Kings River trees that I saw is the ma- 

 jestic stump, already referred to, about a hundred 

 and forty feet high, which above the swell of the 

 roots is thirty-five feet and eight inches inside the 

 bark, and over four thousand years old. It was 

 burned nearly half through at the base, and I 

 spent a day in chopping off the charred surface, 



