It would appear, from the account already quoted of Mr Black's proceedings, that the time stated to
have been occupied in felling the trees at Calaveros Grove is either exaggerated, or was unnecessarily long.
Being twice the diameter, it might require four times the work; but 25 men for 5 days gives more
than eight times the work. It also shews, what we know from the specimens of the wood itself, that
the timber is extremely soft, very light, and easily worked, in appearance not unlike the Cedar-wood used
for pencils, but much lighter: when freshly cut it is white, but speedily acquires the Cedar hue. It is so
brittle, that one of the trees cut down by Mr Black, in falling snapped in three places before it reached
the ground, carrying away whole forests of Picea nobilis and Pine trees before it; and we see, from the
various figures and photographs which at different times have been sent home of the trees, that a great
proportion of them look as if they had been broken off near the top. It seems as if a third of their height
had been carried away; and it has been suggested that, but for the loss of their tops, those trees, now only
300 feet in height, would have been standing 450 feet high. But the remarkable thing is, that all the
mature trees grow up straight and columnar for enormous distances, and none of them ever taper off
in the same proportion to the point. Other Conifers, as the Pines and Firs, grow in a regular proportion,
as shewn in ficr. 32 ; but the Wellingtonia, when it has almost reached its extreme height, suddenly contracts
its breadth, and makes a rapid and abrupt termination, as in fig. 33. The suggestion that this has arisen
from the top having been broken off by winds can, however, scarcely
A apply to all; and the knowledge regarding its early proportions which we
now possess rather suggests a different explanation. We see in these
young trees a repetition of the top growth of the old ones : an enormously
disproportioned (according to our ideas of Conifers) breadth at
the base compared with the height [fig. 34]. For example, a tree at
Basing Park, 14 feet high, was 2 feet 9 inches in circumference at 6
inches from the ground; and only 1 foot 6 inches at 4 feet from the
ground; and a fine example at Bedgebury Park is 15 feet high, and
3 feet 10 inches in circumference at the ground, and 1 foot 10 inches at
3 feet from the ground. In fa6t, its proportionate breadth at the base is
just about double that of other Conifers. In Abies Douglasii, for instance,
the circumference of the base is from an eighth to a tenth of that
of the height. In Wellingtonia we see that it is a fourth of the trunk.
We, therefore, rather imagine that the abrupt termination, which wc sec in the figures and photographs of
the old trees, is natural, and not the result of breakage by winds, and is one of nature's adaptations to protect
the tree from its own fragility ; that the growing green part is always comparatively obtuse, and carries
its obtuseness with it up the tree, but that it ceases where the trunk becomes solid and leafless. This
is sufficiently proved by the fa6t, that the relative proportion of the diameter of the base to the height is the
same in both young and old trees, although in the young the slope is equal from base to top [fig. 34], while in
the old [fig. 33] it is not: the form in the one being that of an extinguisher, in the other that of an obelisk.
We know of no dicotyledonous tree whose timber is so excessively soft, light, and brittle. These are,
of course, anything but valuable properties, where strength, tenacity, and hardness are wanted. But everything
has its use, if we only knew what it was ; and we may rest assured that the wood will be found to be
the most valuable and fittest that could be procured for some purpose not yet thought of, but which, in due
time, will occur to some ingenious practical person. But if the wood is brittle, the bark is not. Mr Black
and his friends found it a great deal worse to cut through than the wood. It is tough and stringy, like coir
or the husk of a coco-nut, and is from a foot to a foot and a half in thickness. It furnishes a striking
instance of those compensatory arrangements by which we find the existence of contradictory qualities in
the same individual reconciled.
It is obvious that if the Wellingtonia, being so fragile, were coated with bark of only a common thickness
and ordinary consistence, it could never live to be a tree : it would be snapped across so soon as it
reached
reached a sufficient height to give the wind a hold upon its branches; but with a coating of bark so
thick, so tough, so stringy, so spongy, and so elastic as it possesses, it is kept in its place, and protected
from its own fragility. It is applied, too, in the same way, and on the same principle as is adopted
by ourselves in packing and supporting anything that is fragile; and this support is given after the
fashion which modern science has ascertained to furnish the greatest amount of strength with the least
waste of substance. The bark is construaed on the plan of the corrugated roof; a network of corrugated
layers of harder texture being placed longitudinally round the tree, while the interstices are packed with a
soft, light, elastic, spongy padding.
Another adaptation of structure to purpose exhibited in this tree is the gnarled expansion of its trunk
at the base, which supports it against the wind by what may be styled a circle of buttresses.
Looking at the enormous magnitude of this species, it was natural that a correspondingly great age
should be ascribed to it. It is, therefore, no wonder that Dr Lindley, in describing it, allowed his
imagination to luxuriate in the strange associations which its size and antiquity evoke. " What a tree is
this," says he, " of what portentous aspect and almost fabulous antiquity! They say that the specimen
felled at the junction of the Stanislaus and San Antonio was above 3000 years old ; that is to say, it must
have been a little plant when Samson was slaying the Philistines, or Paris running away with Helen, or
/Eneas carrying off good Pater Anchises upon his filial shoulders."
But this estimate of its age is obviously taken only from the reports which first reached this country.
It was not until the acts of vandalism, so much condemned by scientific men, had been committed, that
these gentlemen had thereby the opportunity of ascertaining its real age.
It does not appear from what source Dr Lindley drew the report that the tree had reached an age of
3000 years—probably from Mr Lobb, from whom he received the rest of his information; but however
derived, Professor Asa Gray presently shewed, by actual counting of the rings of an imperfect section
(of Sequoia sempervirens), that this age was probably much exaggerated, and that the duration of the tree
was most likely not more than 2000 years. A perfect se&ion, or rather semi-diameter, of Wellingtonia
(II| feet in semi-diameter, i.e., 23 feet in diameter, had the section been complete) was soon afterwards
examined by Dr Torrey, and the following were the rates of growth found by him in that tree :—
The 1st 100 layers occupied . . . . 17* inches. I The 7th 100 layers occupied 7| inches.
4th „ „ . . . . 13
5th i6i
6th . . . . S|
These results shewed that the tree examined was only about 1200 years old. Dr Bigelow, in his
Botanical Report [loc. cit. supra), says, " A s considerable discussion has already been had with regard to
the age of this tree, I may state that, when I visited it in May last, at a scction of it 18 feet from the
stump', it was 14I feet in diameter. As the diminution of the size of the annual rings of growth from the
heart or centre to the circumference or sapwood appeared to be pretty regular, I placed my hand
midway, roughly measuring 6 inches, and carefully counted the rings on that space, which numbered
130, making the tree 1885 years old. Since I came home, Dr Torrey tells me he has actually counted
every ring of a section of the tree, and found the number a little over 1100."
Mr Blake, in the paper already referred to, says that, from a partial count at the end of one of the
burnt trunks at the Mariposa Grove, he judged that there might be from 1800 to 2000 annual rings
(apparently more than in the stump of the Calaveros tree). He acknowledges, however, that the opportunities
for determining the age of the trees is not so good at Mariposa as at the Calaveros Grove, for
one has been there cut down, and cleanly cross-cut, on purpose to fully expose the rings.
At the International Horticultural Meeting recently held at South Kensington (May 1866), Professor
de Candolle gave an account of a very exaa measurement, recently made by M. De la Rue, of the trunk
r[ 20 1J Fr ° f