SEQUOIA WELLINGTON I A. 
9 
magnificent trees ; the last and largest, being 42 feet in circumference, took a week to cut and fell before the two Frenchmen; not, however, before 
the echoes of their axes reached the ears of Judge Lynch, who soon stopped their fun, and, in simple but unmistakable language, gave them to 
understand that it would be ‘dangerous’ to try it again. In fact, so soon as they heard of it, the authorities interfered ; and although they did 
not lynch Pat (which would not have set the trees up again), they told him they would if he cut any more.” 
This was not the first time that specimens of these giant trees had been felled. That piece of vandal¬ 
ism (as it was then justly considered, when only one grove and about 90 large trees were known in the 
whole world) had been already perpetrated at the Calaveros Grove, and the “ New York Herald ’ and 
“ Gardeners’ Chronicle ” had both made stirring appeals to the public and the authorities in California to 
take steps to prevent any repetition of it. 
Dr Torrey thus describes the cutting down of the first trees which fell:— 
“ The earliest accounts of the Mammoth Tree which reached Europe were coupled with the sad intelligence that a piece of vandalism had 
been perpetrated in Upper California unexpected in our enlightened days. One of the finest trees in the grove, we were informed, had been 
felled for the purpose of being publicly exhibited. This individual was 96 feet in circumference at the base, and solid timber. The work of destruc¬ 
tion commenced by boring with augers, and sawing the spaces between—a labour engaging 25 men for 5 days (and costing, according to Dr Bigelow, 
550 dollars, or ,£110). But when this was done, the tree was found to stand so nearly perpendicular that it would not fall ; and it was only by 
applying a wedge and battering-ram, during a strong breeze, that the trunk was finally upset. In falling, it convulsed the earth, and by its weight 
forced the soil from beneath it, so that it lies in a trench ; and mud and stones were hurled near 100 feet high, where they left their mark on the 
neighbouring trees. A seCtion of two feet long taken from the stump, also a portion of the bark, were both exhibited. The success with which the 
public exhibition of those specimens in San Francisco, New York, and Paris, had been attended, induced, in 1854, another speculator to strip a second 
magnificent tree, the ‘ Mother of the Forest,’ up to a height of 116 feet, of its bark, fortunately without affebting by this ruthless process the vital¬ 
ity of the tree. It required the labour of 5 men 90 days. During this time, a person had a fall of 100 feet from the scaffolding, and, curiously 
enough, escaped with a broken limb. The bark was removed in sections 8 feet in length, and each piece marked and numbered, so that it could 
be put up in precisely the same position that it occupied on the tree. It was then, after being carted 80 miles overland, shipped down the river to 
San Francisco, and thence on a clipper vessel, round Cape Florn, to New York, where, after being exhibited for a season, it was transmitted to 
London, and was for the first time on view (April 1856) in the Philharmonic Rooms, and afterwards at the Adelaide Gallery. But both of these 
localities were too low to admit of the whole sebtions of the stripped bark being put up; nor, indeed, was there any other available building in the 
British metropolis which could serve this purpose. Fortunately, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham possessed the necessary height; and, ever since 
the autumn of 1856, the whole of the bark, to the height of 116 feet, has there been exhibited.” 
For more than ten years it stood there, the observed of all observers. It might truly have been said to 
“ bid kings come bow to it,” for who so royal, so great, so learned, or so wise ever came to London but 
he visited the Crystal Palace, and saw this wonder of the vegetable world? It was not alone an instruction 
to Londoners or Englishmen. The whole world profited by its presence there. It is now, alas! a thing 
of the past. On 30th December 1866 it was consumed in the conflagration which destroyed the north 
wing of the Crystal Palace. A few charred fragments, raked from the debris of the fire, the largest a slab 
of about 2 feet long by 1 foot broad, are all that now remain of this world-famed specimen. It does not 
appear to have at all sustained the fireproof character of the bark in its native forests ; but it must be 
remembered that in the Crystal Palace it had been for ten years under cover, in a part of the building 
constantly heated to a tropical temperature, so that the substance of the bark had almost acquired the 
qualities of tinder (see “The Farmer” for Jan. 9, 1867). 
As so many groves are now known, a tree or two could well be spared from them for the Crystal 
Palace, and it is to be hoped that it will not be long ere even a finer bark skeleton of the IVellingtonia 
again instructs and interests the crowds that throng to that favourite place of resort of the people. 
Attempts have also been made to obtain an actual section of the tree for exhibition. In 1854, the 
authorities at the Crystal Palace tried to get one (to be not less than 30 leet in diameter), and they were 
willing to expend between ^300 and ^400 for the purpose. They found, however, that such a slice could 
not be obtained for the money; because the IVellingtonia grows far inland, and the expense of getting it 
down to the coast would have cost more than the sum offered, not to speak of the difficulty of transporting 
it across the Atlantic afterwards. One of Sequoia semftermrens might perhaps have been got, because it 
grows in some places down to the water’s edge, and thus might have been more easily transported ; as, 
indeed, was managed by some speculators, who exhibited at Philadelphia a section \ 2 \ feet in diameter, 
taken at 25 feet from the ground. 
[ 20 ] 
E 
It 
