known as the " Grizzly Giant," standing on a dry and rather rocky point, and visible to great advantage
from the absence of many other trees around it. This tree is remarkable for the great size and number of
its branches, which give it a considerable breadth of top, while in height it is inferior to many around it
that are much more slender, and even to some of the Pines and Firs of moderate diameter. It measures
89 feet round the trunk, about 3 feet above the ground; but an additional 10 feet may be allowed for a
large portion which is burned out of the side, making it, if perfect, about 99 feet in circumference, or 33 feet
in diameter. Another tree beyond, and about the same girth, is bifurcated about 75 feet from the ground,
the two parts being nearly equal in size and height. The trunks of two more trees were measured with
nearly the same result; and on these grounds Mr Blake considers that from 30 to 33 feet may be considered
the greatest diameter of the trees in this grove, as it also is of those in Calaveros County. There are many
a few feet smaller than this; and it is satisfactory to know that there is no lack of young ones coming
on, ranging from 10 to 20 feet in diameter. There are more than can be conveniently counted, besides
groves and thickets of young trees of alf sizes, from seedlings upwards.
The fires, however, which have swept through the forest, have destroyed a great number of the young
trees, and ruined many of the largest and finest by burning at the roots, and running upwards through the
trunk, in many cases burning out an arched way from side to side, high and broad enough for horsemen to
pass through without touching. The fires burn out the centre of the tree most rapidly, and make hollow
cylinders of those that have fallen; a peculiarity doubtless due to the tinder-like softness and porosity of the
wood, and the density and toughness of the bark. Mr Blake mentions that at Mariposa there was, in 1861,
a hollow trunk, now consumed, through which horsemen could ride upright for 150 feet, going in at the
roots, and coming out half-way along the trunk; and when he visited the place, his own party rode erect
for many feet into the interior of one which had fallen. In a low marshy part of the valley a line of mediumsized
trees may there be seen growing on each side of a very ancient trunk, now completely decayed and
moss-grown. All the appearances there indicate that trees have grown and fallen across each other for
ages, giving extraordinary depths of vegetable mould.
Professor Brewer tells us (in a letter to Dr Hooker, published in the "Linna;an Society's Proceedings,"
vol viii. p. 274) that the largest tree he saw in the Mariposa Grove was 106 feet in circumference at 4 feet
from the ground. It had lost some buttresses by fire, and must have been at least 115 or 120 feet when
entire: it is 276 feet high. He adds that the Indians tell of a much larger tree, which he did not see.
We have given a coloured plate, drawn from a photograph, of one of these Mariposa trees, which
was 64 feet in circumference.
We quote the following details regarding the trees in this grove, from an account of a seed-colle£ting
expedition, published in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" (April i860). The expedition
was undertaken by Mr Patrick Black, a young Irish gentleman, in 1859, long before the grove was so
well known as it is now:
" Well supplied with a; mmunition, he took his dl eparture f<> r the Mariposa Grove, which is a long way in the outer wo rld: n ot that it is without
its own inhabitants, its own hotel (kept by an old hunter), na y, even its own authorities, as Mr Black had like to find t:o his c<>s t. He took up
his quarters with the old hu nter, who may rather be s•a id to have kept open house than an hotel, as the sky was the onlyi fro hce ha,d ; a roof, apparently,
not yet being conside red essential to the comfcir ts of an 1l otel in these parts, although one might have thought that it wouli1 , seeing that the
grove is about 50CX> feet aslo ve the level of the sea, an d there » as frost every night while Mr Black was there.
" He visited the grov:. daily, shooting down a con e or two :o1 make sure that they were ripe before he should begin to make his colleftion. He
soon found, however, that it would take a battery <> f ammunil;i on and an army of sharpshooters to make even a modi: rate ccJ ledion of seeds.
The seed is exceedingly s.n ail and thin, a mere scalt and the <:o ne is also small (not much larger than the cone of an ordin ary Sc otch Fir), so that
the produft of the whole week's shooting might be held in on e's waistcoat pocket. Mr Black soon tired of this ; and s eeing 01 ne or two trees oi
less size than the others, ta me to the conclusion thai: it would be easier to fill his wallet by cutting down a tree than shoot ing do'i vn the cones ; so,
boldly putting behind him the fear of the anathemas of the "N ew York Herald," and of the " Gardeners' Chronicle," as well as the nearer terror
of the local authorities, he at once, with the assistanc e of his ho st and two Frenchmen (that the three most civilised natioi is in thi = world might all
be represented in the perp etration of the sacrilegious deed), pre weeded to put his intent into execution. They first sefeaed the si mallest tree in the
grove; it was 24 feet in ciir cumference, and took Bla,c k and the: hunter three days' hard work to level with the ground, 0i1e cuttiti g on each side ol
magnificent trees; the last and largest, being 42 feet in circumference, took a week to cut an« leu i>e.ore me uvo .
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 faet, so soon as they heard of it. the authorities interfered ; and although they d,d
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 vandalism
(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 s
been perpetrated in Upper California unexpefled in our enlightened days. One of the finest
felled for the purpose of being publicly exhibited. This individual was 96 feet in circumference at 1
tion commenced by boring with augers, and sawing the spaces between—a labour engaging 25 mer
.en this was done, the tree was found to stand so nearly perpendi
-ram, during a strong breeze, that the trunk was finally upset. Ir
so that it lies in a trench ; and mud and stones were hurled near
of two feet long taken from the stump, also a portion of the bark, v
icns in San Francisco, New York, and Paris, had been attended, induce<
,f the Forest,' up to a height of 116 feet, of its bark, fortunately without affixing by this ruthle
550 dollars, cir £110). But wi
applying a Wi =dge and batterinj
forced the so il from beneath il
neighbouring trees. A seftior
public exhibit ion of those specii
magnificent tr ee, the • Mother
ity of the tr<;e . It required t
enough, esca; ped with a broken
be put up in precisely the sami
San Francis. ;o, and thence on
London, and was for the first 1
localities wer e too low to admi
British metr. >po!is which could
e sad intelligence th: it a piece of \ vandalism had
trees in the grove, we were inforni cd, had been
he base, and solid tiarb er. Thewia rk of destrucfor
s days (and costi ng, according! :o Dr Bigelow,
:ular that it would t lot fall; and ; it was only by
falling, it convulsed the earth, ant i by its weight
100 feet high, where; they left their mark on the
ere both exhibited. The success with which the
uced, in 1854, anodic:r speculator«. strip a second
nen 90 days. During this :rson had a fall of 100 feet from the scaffolding, and, c
ved in sections 8 feet in length, and each piece marked and numberec could
: position that it occupied on the tree. It was then, after being carted 80 miles overland, shipped down the river to
a Clipper vessel, round Cape Horn, to New York, where, after being exhibited for a season, it was transmitted to
ime on view (April 1856) in the Philharmonic Rooms, and afterwards at the Adelaide Gallery. But both of these
: of the whole sections of the stripped bark being put up; nor, indeed, was there any other available building in the
serve this purpose. Fortunately, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham possessed the necessary height; and, ever since
the autumn of 1S56. 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 visitcd'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 docs 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 Wellingtonia
a«rain 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 feet 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 Wellingtonia 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 sempcrvirens might perhaps have been got, because .t
,TOWS 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 121 feet in diameter,
taken at 25 feet from the ground.
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