NOTES OF AN AMERICAN TOUR. 
211 
is spherically jointed, and is weathering away in concentric 
spherical laminations of one to several inches thickness. This 
dome is situated in the middle of the valley, and is the next 
highest point to the great Half Dome, being only 700 feet 
lower. There are reported to be nearly 100 of these domes 
scattered about the surrounding district. 
At thirty miles distance from the Yosemite Valley, on the 
way back to the railway, is the celebrated Mariposa 
Grove of Big Trees, the great “ Sequoia Gigantea.” This 
grove is situated on the southern slope of a ridge of the Sierra 
Nevada mountains, at a height of 6,600 feet above the sea, in 
a sheltered situation a little below the summit of the ridge. 
The “Big Trees” grow in a forest of large extent, but 
they are confined to a small portion of the forest of only a 
mile or two in extent, and they are limited in total number of 
trees to only a few hundreds. Some of the finest of the big 
trees have suffered from former injury by fire from the Indians, 
but the whole Mariposa Grove (as well as the Yosemite 
Valley) is now in the care of the State, and set apart for ever 
for “ public use, resort, and recreation.” 
The largest of the trees reaches the extraordinary height 
of about 400 feet, and the stem shoots up to as much as 200 
feet high from the ground before the first branch occurs, 
which is itself about six feet in diameter. The stem is more 
than 100 feet circumference or thirty-three feet diameter at a 
* yard above the ground, and one of the fallen trees has been 
found to be as much as six feet diameter at a height of 300 
feet from its base, and fifteen feet diameter at half that height. 
One of the living big trees has an archway cut through 
the stem at the base, large enough for the coach to 
drive through, that brings the visitors to the place. The big 
trees are surrounded by gigantic pines of extraordinary size, 
reaching to 200 and 250 feet height, which would themselves 
be objects of great attraction if they were not dwarfed by 
their giant companions. The bark of the big trees is as 
much as eighteen inches thickness, and from the number of 
concentric annual rings seen in the stem the age indicated is 
as great as 3,000 years. There are three other Groves of 
Big Trees—Calaveras, Fresno, and Tuolumne—all situated 
similarly to the Mariposa Grove, and in the same mountain 
district; and in the Tuolumne Grove are the remains of a fallen 
tree still larger than those at Mariposa, showing a diameter 
of as much as forty feet, and a portion of the hollow trunk 
which is lying on the ground has a road through it large 
enough for three horses to pass abreast. 
(To be continued.) 
