A SHORT AOOOIJE'T 



OF 



THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA, 



INTKODUCTION. 



Before the gflacial period the genus of big trees called Sequoia 

 flourished widely in the temperate zones of three continents. There 

 were many species, and Europe, Asia, and America had each its share. 

 But when the ice fields moved down out of the north the luxuriant 

 vegetiition of the age declined, and with it these multitudes of trees. 

 One after another the different kinds gave way, their remains became 

 buried, and when the ice receded just two species, the Big Tree and 

 Redwood, survived. Both grew in California, each separate from the 

 other, and each occupying, in comparison with its former territory, a 

 mere island of space. As we know them now, the lit^dwood {Sequoia 

 seiaperclrens) lives only in a narrow strip of the coast ranges 10 to 

 30 miles wide, extending from just within the southern border of 

 Oregon to the bay of Montere3% while the Big Tree {SequolavKishing- 

 toniona) is found only in small groves scattered along the west slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from the middk^ fork of the American 

 River to the head of Deer Creek, a distance of !^(jO miles. The utmost 

 search reveals but ten main groups, and the total num])er of sizable 

 trees in these groups must be limited to tigures in the thousands. It is, 

 moreover, the plain truth that all the specimens which are remarkable 

 for their size do not exceed 500. 



The Big Trees are unique in the world — the grandest, the largest, the 

 oldest, the most majestically graceful of trees — and if it were not 

 enough to be all this, they are among the scarcest of known tree species 

 and have the extreme scientific value of being the best living repre- 

 sentatives of a former geologic age. It is a tree which has come down 

 to us through the vicissitudes of many centuries solely because of its 

 superb qualifications. Its bark is often 2 feet thick and almost non- 

 combustible. The oldest specimens felled are still sound at the heart, 

 and fungus is an enemy unknown to it. Yet with all these means of 

 maintenance the Big Trees have apparently not increased their range 

 since the glacial epoch. They have only just managed to hold their 

 own on the little strip of country where the climate is locally favor- 

 able. 



At the present time the only grove thoroughly safe from destruction 

 is the Mariposa, and this is far from being the most interesting. 

 Most of the other groves are either in process of, or in danger of, 

 being logged. The very finest of all, the Calaveras Grove, with the 

 biggest and tallest trees, the most uncontaminated surroundings, and 

 practically all the literary and scientific associations of the species con- 

 nected with it, has been purchased recently by a lumberman who came 



