SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 581 
Under the other, the perfection of nature, if relative, is multifa- 
rious and ever renewed; and much that is enigmatical now may 
find explanation in some record of the past. 
That the two species of redwood we are contemplating origi- 
nated as they are and where they are, and for the part they are ' 
now playing, is, to say the least, not a scientific supposition, nor 
in any sense a probable one. Nor is it more likely that they are- 
destined to play a conspicuous part in the future, or that they 
would have done so, even if the Indian’s fires and the white man’s 
axe had spared them. The redwood of the coast (Sequoia semper- 
virens) had the stronger hold upon existence, forming as it did 
large forests throughout a narrow.belt about three hundred miles 
in length, and being so tenacious of life that every large stump 
sprouts into a copse. But it does not pass the Bay of Monterey, 
nor cross the line of Oregon, although so grandly developed not 
far below it. The more remarkable Sequoia gigantea of the Sierra 
exists in numbers so limited that the separate groves may be reck- 
oned upon the fingers, and the trees of most of them have been 
counted, except near their southern limit, where they are said to 
be more copious. A species limited in individuals holds its exis- 
tence by a precarious tenure; and this has a foothold only ina 
few sheltered spots, of a happy mean in temperature and locally 
favored with moisture in summer. Even there, for some reason 
or other, the pines with which they are associated (Pinus Lamber- 
tiana and P. ponderosa), the firs (Abies grandis and A. amabilis) 
and even the incense-cedar (Libocedrus decurrens) possess a great 
advantage, and, though they strive in vain to emulate their size, 
wholly overpower the Sequoias in numbers. ‘To him that hath 
Shall be given.” The force of numbers eventually wins. At least 
in the commonly visited groves Sequoia gigantea is invested in its 
last stronghold, can neither advance into more exposed positions 
above, nor fall back into drier and barer ground below, nor hold 
its own in the long run where it is, under present conditions ; and 
a little further drying of the climate, which must once have been 
much moister than now, would precipitate its doom. Whatever the 
individual longevity, certain if not speedy is the decline of a race 
“i which a high death-rate afflicts the young. Seedlings of the 
me trees occur not rarely, indeed, but in meagre proportion to those 
of associated trees; and small indeed is the chance that any of 
these will attain to “the days of the years of their fathers.” 
