in it; nor how 40 chairs «ere 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 , , 2 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
4 5o 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, luge enough for a person to ride through.
Dr Bigelow, in his " Botanical Report," thus describes this specimen —
- A .ton d i m e from ft« m> » « °< k lS"r dimensions. "PP"™«I " overthrow. b, «""• 4° - S° j mt
_ I. « hollow for some distmtee. »d. when . . « te q.i.e . * * . ~ ftmgh 1» eavit,. The « ** »
I brota, or. - 4 '.y — WW (probably lite), « . de«r.,ed A. ft. di...... =' 1 - <<~ « • «» — »
„d . » t o ,b. — i » e f t of ami »„.,.d»b, fr.» m u m « 4 » m * g « . ..
with the main body, 150 feet fro,
dainty flat ft. tT standing
1 circumtonc or about 36 fee 'O or wo feet1 At ft. b.tt i> is no feet in tomtom, or about J6 feett imn ddiaimmeetteerr.. OUn t.he. ba.rk. quBite, a -soi.l h-ad— a —
' -. .table-sited shrnb, SrotH.5 Off these 1 M >1*™™ * — » « " * • * • » 1« W * * m 1 —
et from
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 So feet in circumference, and .5 300 feet
in height The " Three Graces," growing on one root, are 92 feet in united circumference, and 2,0 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 affedtlonately towards each other, 60 feet in circumference
and ' 1 0 feet in height. » Hercules," 67 feet in circumference and j»S feet high. " Addle and Mary
are each 65 feet in circumference and 300 feet high, J Uncle Tom's Cabin," „ feet in circumference and
,00 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
sire of the body also extends high up. Speaking of the Mariposa Grove trees, Mr Blake quotes the
dimensions of one at different points 1 » At 150 feet above the stump, the diameter is about ,2 feet 1
« feet hioher up, it is reduced to 6 feet 1 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 somewin,
behind then, in dimensions From Mr Blake's paper, to which we have already referred, we earn
,he following details as to the size of the trees in this grove The visitor in passing through the lower
grove first tneetsa tree which is uprooted, and lies at full length on the ground, as complete a barrier to
orooress as a wall thirty feet high. The side of this huge trunk is ascended by means of a ladder and
, "s 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 ,8 inches in diameter, all beyond this having
been burned away. According to Mr Clark, above mentioned, who first saw the tree m ,85 7. it measure,
,68 feet before it was burned. Being partly imbedded in the soil near the roots, its size or diameter could
„0, be readily ascertained, but was assumed to be about 25 feet Beyond this there is a vety fine tree
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