SEQUOIA WELLINGTON I A. 
7 
in it; nor how 40 chairs were squeezed into it; nor how there was said to be room for 200 people, and 
how 140 children were actually crammed into it. The dimensions speak for themselves. 
Mr Lapham, the proprietor of the Calaveros or Mammoth Tree Grove, gives an interesting account 
of the dimensions of the trees in that grove. He tells us that most of the specimens now standing there 
are of the average height-of 300 feet; one, however, the “ Father of the Forest,” as the specimen has been 
appropriately termed, must have been considerably larger. It has long since bowed its head in the dust, 
and now “ lies at random carelessly diffused.” It still measures 112 feet in circumference at the base, and 
can be examined for 300 feet where the trunk was broken by falling against another tree: it there measures 
18 feet in diameter, and, according to the average taper of the other trees, this giant must have been about 
450 feet high, and was no doubt one of the loftiest vegetable forms of the present creation. A hollow 
burnt cavity extends through the trunk for 200 feet, large enough for a person to ride through. 
Dr Bigelow, in his “ Botanical Report,” thus describes this specimen:— 
“ A short distance from this tree was another of larger dimensions, which apparently had been overthrown by accident some 40 or 50 years 
ago. It was hollow for some distance, and, when I was there, quite a rivulet was running through its cavity. The trunk was 300 feet in length; 
the top broken off, and, by some agency (probably fire), was destroyed. At the distance of 300 feet from the butt, the trunk was 40 feet in circum¬ 
ference, or rather more than 12 feet in diameter, F ragments of the same kind of tree, which had probably been exposed to the vicissitudes of 
climate and weather the same length of time, and supposed to be from the individual tree that lies prostrate, are to be found projedled in a line 
with the main body, 150 feet from the top, proving to a degree of moral certainty that the tree, when standing alive, must have attained the 
height of 450 or 500 feet! At the butt it is no feet in circumference, or about 36 feet in diameter. On the bark quite a soil had accumulated, 
on which considerable-sized shrubs were growing. Off these I collected specimens of currants and gooseberries on its body, from bushes elevated 
22 feet from the ground.” 
We may run shortly over the dimensions given by Mr Lapham of some of the other trees. “ The 
Miner’s Cabin ” (they have almost all received names) measures 80 feet in circumference, and is 300 feet 
in height. The “ Three Graces,” growing on one root, are 92 feet in united circumference, and 290 feet 
in height. The “ Old Bachelor,” which, we are told, is a forlorn-looking individual, having many rents in 
the bark, and, withal, the most shabby-looking tree in the forest, is about 60 feet in circumference and 300 
feet in height. “ Husband and Wife,” leaning affectionately towards each other, 60 feet in circumference 
and 250 feet in height. “ Hercules,” 67 feet in circumference and 325 feet high. “ Addie and Mary” 
are each 65 feet in circumference and 300 feet high. “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” 75 feet in circumference and 
300 feet high. They seem all to rise like solid pillars, without a branch for nearly two-thirds of their height, 
often with furrowed bark, so as to look like fluted columns. The form or taper of the trunks of this tree 
is peculiar. When standing at their base, and looking up,, the trunk appears to taper off very suddenly 
towards the top, and to end in a stump-like point, instead of running up in a slender spire. The great 
size of the body also extends high up. Speaking of the Mariposa Grove trees, Mr Blake quotes the 
dimensions of one at different points: “At 150 feet above the stump, the diameter is about 12 feet; 
75 feet higher up, it is reduced to 6 feet; and 30 feet higher, to 18 inches.” The swell at the roots is 
generally very regular, and the trunks cylindrical, and free from the deep furrows described as present in 
the trees at the Calaveros Grove. 
The trees in Mariposa Grove are in a more exposed situation than those at Calaveros, and fall some¬ 
what behind them in dimensions. From Mr Blake’s paper, to which we have already referred, we learn 
the following details as to the size of the trees in this grove. The visitor in passing through the lower 
grove first meets a tree which is uprooted, and lies at full length on the ground, as complete a barrier to 
progress as a wall thirty feet high. The side of this huge trunk is ascended by means of a ladder and 
steps cut in the bark. Its dimensions, taken with a tape-line, were found to be 256 feet from the upper 
part of the swell of the roots to the top, where it was still 18 inches in diameter, all beyond this having 
been burned away. According to Mr Clark, above mentioned, who first saw the tree in 1857, it measured 
268 feet before it was burned. Being partly imbedded in the soil near the roots, its size or diameter could 
not be readily ascertained, but was assumed to be about 25 feet. Beyond this there is a very fine tree 
[ 20 ] d known 
