Animals of North America 



which the tree is reproducing itself, while in others 

 it has ceased to reproduce. 



In the year 1900 forty mills and logging com- 

 panies were engaged in destroying these trees. 



All of us regard the destruction of the Parthe- 

 non by the Turks as a great calamity ; yet it would 

 be possible, thanks to the laborious studies which 

 have chiefly emanated from Germany, for modern 

 architects to completely restore the Parthenon in 

 its former grandeur; but it is far beyond the 

 power of all the naturalists of the world to restore 

 one of these Sequoias, which were large trees, over 

 100 feet in height, spreading their leaves to the 

 sun, before the Parthenon was even conceived by 

 the architects and sculptors of Greece. 



LIFE OF THE SEQUOIA AND HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 



In 1900 five hundred of the very large trees still 

 remained, the highest reaching from 320 to 325 

 feet. Their height, however, appeals to us less 

 than their extraordinary age, estimated by 

 Hutchins at 3,600, or by John Muir, who prob- 

 ably loves them more than any man living, at from 

 4,000 to 5,000 years. According to the actual 

 count of Muir of 4,000 rings, by a method which 

 he has described to me, one of these trees was 

 1,000 years old when Homer wrote the Iliad; 



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