Photograph by A. R. Moore 



A 25-FOOT SAW USED FOR FELLING BIG TRFFS 



While wedges are required to keep the tree from "pinching" the saw, and a good supply 

 of axle grease or other lubricant is necessary to overcome friction, elbow grease in liberal 

 quantities is the first essential in handling one of these big blades. 



with the national government, whereby 

 one of the country's noblest scenic re- 

 sources has been presented to the Ameri- 

 can people for their perpetual enjoyment. 



When one recalls that the Giant Forest 

 is the largest intact body of trees of this 

 species in existence, with the General 

 Sherman as its king — a wonderful speci- 

 men 103 feet in circumference, 280 feet 

 tall, as high as the dome of the National 

 Capitol* — our hearts thrill that these 

 masterpieces of nature have been rescued 

 from the axe. 



A thousand years may not bring them 

 to their full stature, but a few days may 

 wipe them out forever. Unafraid of 

 wreck and change, untouched even by 

 "time's remorseless doom," they have 

 come down to us through centuries — aye, 

 through millenniums ; and now will live 

 on through other centuries, a link to bind 

 the future with the past. 



Whoever has stood beneath these tow- 



*'A photogravure of this magnificent tree, 

 23 x H : / 2 inches, was published in the April, 

 1916, number of the Geographic Magazine. 



ering giants of the forest feels a rever- 

 ent love for these grizzled patriarchs ! 

 The oldest living thing! There is not a 

 nation on the face of the earth today but 

 what was born, mayhap, a thousand years 

 after they reached their maturity. 



Nations have risen, reached their 

 prime, and passed on to the decay and 

 oblivion that is the ultimate fate of all 

 things temporal, and other nations have 

 succeeded them, in their turn to be fol- 

 lowed by still others, since the great trees 

 began their existence. World powers 

 have arisen, run their course, and disap- 

 peared — meteors, as it were — in the sky 

 of history, and the big trees still live on ! 



Who could replace them? Not man, 

 for never yet in all his existence has he 

 had continuity of purpose enough to plan 

 2,000 years ahead. The mutations of 

 time in twenty centuries leave only here 

 and there a silent monument to speak of 

 the past, and even these have been the 

 prey of generations coming after their 

 builders. Some of the most magnificent 

 marbles in Athens and Rome were burnt 



