the lowest branch, while the tops soared three hundred feet above us. Of course, such trees 
were entitled to the name “ Big,” but their trunks are as smooth and straight as arrows, and every¬ 
thing around is large and it is difficult at first to realize their immensity. These big trees possess 
no beauty, save in their trunks, the foliage being thin and scattering and almost out of sight, while 
the trunk presents the most graceful shaft mortal eye ever beheld. We give an engraving of both 
foliage and cone, of about natural size. The Sugar Pine, a most beautiful and majestic tree, 
abounds in the mountains, and if not overshadowed by its mammoth neighbors would be thought 
of immense proportions. We measured some that were more than ten feet in diameter, unless 
we have forgotten the correct figures. They bear elegant cones, sometimes eighteen inches in 
length, and as they grow among the big trees, and the cones drop to the ground, they are often 
collected by tourists and carried away as the fruit of the Mammoth Tree, which bears but a small 
cone, as seen by our engraving. The Sugar Pine exudes a sugary gum, hence the name. After a 
short stay among the Mammoth Trees, and we have ever since regretted its brevity, we com¬ 
menced our return to Murphy’s Camp, and having 
no occasion to watch for the wonderful trees were 
at leisure to enjoy the delightful scenery; and 
we do not think there are fifteen miles of travel in 
the world that will afford such wondrous delight. 
Here we first saw the Sugar Pines, and the strange 
Snow Plant, the poisonous Tarantula , that makes its 
beautiful little cave in the earth, with its curiously 
hinged door. Here, too, we first saw water carried 
in canals for almost a score of miles, on mountain 
sides, and over ravines, for irrigation or mining pur¬ 
poses. The Tarantula makes a home in the earth, 
composed of small sticks and clay four or five inches 
in depth, and three inches in diameter. It is hollow 
the whole length, and the opening about an inch in 
diameter, has a soft, velvety lining, and is covered 
with an ingeniously contrived trap-door, hung by an 
easily working substantial hinge that may be opened 
hundreds of times without injury. Here the Tar¬ 
antula abides hidden from his prey, and also from 
his enemies. The bite of this ugly spider is exceed- 
ingly poisonous, and is said sometimes to occasion 
death. We have endeavored in the engravings to 
sdiow the appearance of the spider and his home. 
The latter was drawn from a specimen we brought home, but we didn’t bring one of the “ani¬ 
mals,” and so have had to make its portrait up from memory and the books. 
As we neared the village of Murphy’s Camp we observed dense clouds of smoke rising towards 
the heavens, from a point not far from where that place was supposed to be, and many and curious 
were the guesses as to its cause, but we soon discovered that the whole village was on fire, and 
as we had left our baggage at the hotel, anxiety soon took the place of curiosity. Our hotel, with 
about half-a-dozen other houses alone were saved. Thus many of the mining villages of Cali¬ 
fornia pass away. 
FROM THE MAMMOTH TREES TO THE Y OS EM IT F. VALLEY. 
After a night’s rest, we were about to say, but rather a night of uneasy weariness, for it seemed 
as though half of the wild Indians of California and the wilder white men, had assembled to cel¬ 
ebrate the destruction of the village in a drunken night carousal, our party of twenty-three persons, 
all but four or five being tourists from the Eastern States and Europe, made an early start for 
the Yosemite Valley about ninety miles distant, and which we supposed we could reach in two 
days’ travel. The person from whom we had hired our conveyance in San Francisco had agreed 
to telegraph to the various halting places, so that we would be provided with proper food and 
lodgings, for a party of twenty-three tired and hungry travelers cannot always find beds and food 
at these mountain hostelries. This promise, however, was forgotten, or of little avail. A ride of 
3 
LEAF AND CONE OF MAMMOTH TREE. 
