322 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



is about 7000 feet, and I heard of still another 

 grove whose waters drain into the upper Kern 

 opposite the Middle Fork of the Tule. 



It appears, therefore, that though the Sequoia 

 belt is two hundred and sixty miles long, most of 

 the trees are on a section to the south of Kings 

 River only about seventy miles in length. But 

 though the area occupied by the species increases 

 so much to the southward, there is but little 

 difference in the size of the trees. A diameter 

 of twenty feet and height of two hundred and 

 seventy-five is perhaps about the average for 

 anything like mature and favorably situated 

 trees. Specimens twenty-five feet in diameter 

 are not rare, and a good many approach a height 

 of three hundred feet. Occasionally one meets 

 a specimen thirty feet in diameter, and rarely one 

 that is larger. The majestic stump on Kings 

 River is the largest I saw and measured on the 

 entire trip. Careful search around the bound- 

 aries of the forests and groves and in the gaps 

 of the belt failed to discover any trace of the 

 former existence of the species beyond its present 

 limits. On the contrary, it seems to be slightly 

 extending its boundaries; for the outstanding 

 stragglers, occasionally met a mile or two from 

 the main bodies, are young instead of old monu- 

 mental trees. Ancient ruins and the ditches 

 and root-bowls the big trunks make in falling 

 were found in all the groves, but none outside 



