350 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



■world. Trees from ten to fifteen feet in diame- 

 ter and three hundred feet high are not uncom- 

 mon, and a few attain a height of three hundred 

 and fifty feet or even four hundred, with a 

 diameter at the base of fifteen to twenty feet or 

 more, while the ground beneath them is a gar- 

 den of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies, gaultheria, 

 and rhododendron. This grand tree, Sequoia 

 sempervirens, is surpassed in size only by its near 

 relative, Sequoia gigantea, or Big Tree, of the 

 Sierra Nevada, if, indeed, it is surpassed. The 

 sempervirens is certainly the taller of the two. 

 The gigantea attains a greater girth, and is 

 heavier, more noble in port, and more sublimely 

 beautiful. These two Sequoias are all that are 

 known to exist in the world, though in former 

 geological times the genus was common and had 

 many species. The redwood is restricted to the 

 Coast Eange, and the Big Tree to the Sierra. 



As timber the redwood is too good to five. 

 The largest sawmills ever built are busy along 

 its seaward border, " with all the modern im- 

 provements," but so immense is the yield per 

 acre it will be long ere the supply is exhausted. 

 The Big Tree is also, to some extent, being made 

 into lumber. It is far less abundant than the red- 

 wood, and is, fortunately, less accessible, extend- 

 ing along the western flank of the Sierra in a 

 partially interrupted belt, about two hundred and 

 fifty miles long, at a height of from four to eight 



