THE INSURGENCE OF LIFE 155 



271 B.C. was about twelve feet in circumference just above 

 the base at the beginning of the Christian era. When it 

 was 516 years old (a.d. 245) it sufiered a burn three feet 

 wide, and 105 years were occupied in heahng this wound. 

 When it was 1,712 years old (a.d. 1441) it suffered two bad 

 burns. One hundred and thirty-nine years of growth 

 followed, including the time occupied by the covering of 

 the two wounds. When it was 1,851 years old (a.d. 1580) it 

 suffered from a bum two feet wide which took 56 years to 

 heal. When it was 2,068 years old (a.d. 1797) a tremendous 

 fire burned a great scar 18 feet wide with a height estimated 

 at 30 feet. In the 103 years that were vouchsafed to it before 

 it was killed, the tree had reduced the wound to fourteen 

 feet in width, and it might have finished it in a.d. 2250, 

 or thereabouts. ' Sequoia gigantea stands practically alone, 

 sublime among living objects in its abihty to withstand an 

 injury of this magnitude, and to endure a sufficient length 

 of time for its complete recovery '. The resistance to 

 insect, fungus, and microbe is hardly less remarkable. 

 ' There is something in the sap of the Big Tree that is an 

 elixir of life, something deposited in the lignified cells 

 of the normally formed layers of wood that resists in an 

 unexampled way the dreadful * tooth of time '. 



One does not envy the man who can look at even a sec- 

 tion of great Sequoia without a thrill at the sight. ' We 

 have, deep in their annual rings, records which extend far 

 beyond the beginnings of Anglo-Saxon peoples, beyond 

 even the earliest struggles for Mberty and democracy 

 among the Greeks ',...' records of forest conflagrations, of 

 the vicissitudes of seasons, of periods of drought and periods 

 of abundant and favouring rains '. It is to be hoped that 

 everything feasible will be done to protect these triumphs 



