the trees from Clark's, in the valley of the south fork of the Merced River, is over undulating spurs and
ridges covered with magnificent forests of Pines, Firs, and Spruces, and almost without undergrowth, the
smooth surface being broken only at wide intervals by outcrops of gneissic rocks. The trees are spread
along a lateral valley, on the flank of the main ridge, in two groves, about half a mile apart, known as the
Upper and Lower Grove. The number of trees of fair size in the Upper Grove is said to be 450 ; in the
Lower nearly 200 ; or about 600 in all.
A third grove, containing about 500 trees, has been found in Fresno county, eight miles south-east
of the Mariposa trees. The trees in this grove are in a valley sheltered from high winds, consequently
some of them are probably taller than any in Mariposa. Mr Clark, who visited them, says that two of the
largest measure each 81 feet round the trunk, three feet above the ground.
Another grove is reported by Mr Blake as having been discovered further south and east upon
the Kaweeab (perhaps what in some maps is spelt Caweha), or Four Creeks, or about 50 miles
from Visaiia. This probably is the same as the station noted by Professor W. H. Brewer, of the
State Geological Survey of California, in the letter to Sir William Hooker, to which we have already
referred. He says:—
"An interesting discovery this year has been made of the existence of the big trees in great abundance on the western flanks of the Sierra
Nevada, in about lat. 36° or 37° N. They are very abundant along abelt at 5000 to 7000 feet altitude, for a distance of more than 25 miles, sometimes
in groves, at others scattered through the forests in great numbers. You can have no idea of the grandeur they impart to the scenery,
where at. times a hundred trees are in sight at once over 15 feet in diameter, their foliage contrasting so finely with their bright cinnamon-coloured
bark. 1 found trees larger than they occur further north, in the Calaveros and Mariposa Groves."
He adds, and in doing so confirms Mr Blake's observation on the Mariposa Grove :—
There seems no danger of the speedy extinction of the species, as it is now known in quite a number of localities ; and, contrary to the
and error published regarding them."
It thus appears that there is a belt, or rather a strip, of these interesting trees running along the
western flank of the Sierra Nevada, parallel with its crest, for 120 miles or more, and at about the same
elevation on the flank of the chain, much broken, it is true, by the many river valleys and deep ravines,
but indicating a continuity before the river valleys were excavated to their present great depth.
Besides the above well-authenticated localities, the tree is also said to have been met with in Carson
Creek, a few miles to the north of the Mammoth Tree Grove ; and Carrière states that an officer of the
French navy brought cones identical with those obtained in California, from a latitude about ten degrees
north of those localities; but the identity of these cones with those of the Wellingtonia has been doubted.
It is said also to have been met with in various other parts of the Sierra Nevada ; but if so, it does not
there attain the gigantic dimensions of those in the groves above mentioned.
Whether its range may not be still more extensive we cannot yet say. Various reports of its having
been observed in other districts have from time to time got into currency. For example, we learn from
a San Francisco French newspaper,* of 17th November 1864, in which is published an account of the
Alpes Californiennes, professing to be derived from the " Travaux de la Commission Géologique de California,"
that Dr Cooper states that he saw, in the mountains of San Diego, some trees of which the foliage,
according to his belief, was intermediate between that of the Wellingtonia and the Red-wood (Sequoia sempervirens).
This must obviously have been the Sequoia sempervirens, because we know that it at times
assumes the foliage of the Wellingtonia, having some branches with imbricated leaves, and others with
distichous foliage ; while the Wellingtonia has never been observed to shew distichous foliage. In the
same
same article, the statement occurs that " the author of this article saw in 1849 (that is, the year before the
discovery of the Wellingtonia), upon the lofty plateaux which are crossed by Lassen's route (now part of
the county of Shasta), a number of trees, the bark of which had all the characters of that of the Wellingtonia,
notwithstanding that their size did not exceed three or four feet in diameter."
This locality is very much out of the range within which the Wellingtonia has yet been found; and
seeing that that occupies a well-defined relative position on the mountains, both as regards elevation and
direction, we have little hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the trees seen by this author were, in
all probability, not Wellingtonias.
History.—The Sequoia sempervirens, or a species most closely allied to it, S. Langsdorfii, existed
in the Miocene epoch both in Europe, Polar America, and California, and has survived the Glacial
epoch, and come down to us in its present form. No traces of an imbricated form of Sequoia, from which
we might infer the existence of Wellingtonia, have, however, been met with. It is perhaps, therefore, not
an improbable conjeCture, that it did not appear until after the Glacial epoch; and that it was to the change
in climate which then took place that its appearance is to be referred. We have seen that it occupics
a position along the west flank of the Sierra Nevada, at from 4000 to 5000 feet of elevation. Most plants
which occupy a position high in altitude have their representatives also in a more northerly locality at a
lower level. The Wellingtonia has not. We hold the view laid down in the " Geographical Distribution
of Animals and Plants," * that neither plants nor animals readily change their original specific birthplace ;
and that the northern hemisphere has gradually been recovering its heat since the Glacial epoch, and
still continues to do so. In conformity with that view, we imagine that the Wellingtonia appeared at
the time when the Sierra Nevada was 5000 feet lower than it now is: that is, when the locality of the
Sierra, where Wellingtonia is now found, was level with the sea, and when the climate at that lower level
corresponded with that of the higher level which it now occupies. Such speculations, if only presented
as speculations, are perfectly admissible. The following out the trains of thought suggested by similar
hypotheses or theories has done much to enlighten us on the past history of the globe.
Leaving them, however, and turning from the region of fancy to that of faCt, from the geological to the
historical times, we know this much of the early history of the trees from the annual rings of growth, that
the groves where they now grow have existed for at least 1000 years, probably thousands of 1000 years.
They were discovered by civilised people in 1850, but were previously well known to, and admired
by, the native Indians, who called them Wa-wo-nah, meaning Great Tree. Their ancestors must have
paused awe-stricken under their shade or ever Columbus crossed the Atlantic; and they still know more
about them than the settlers in North-Western America. They speak of trees larger than any yet known
to the latter. But so far as the researches of the civilised explorers have gone, the places where groves of
the tree have been met with are only those above-mentioned.
Who of the reading and writing races first discovered them is already matter of uncertainty and
dispute. Douglas makes the following remark, in a letter published in Hooker's " Companion to the
Botanical Magazine," vol. ii. p. 150:—
" But the great beauty of Californian vegetation is a species of Taxodium, which gives the mountains a most peculiar, I was almost going to
say awful, appearance, something which plainly tells us we are not in Europe. I have repeatedly measured specimens of this tree 270 feet long,
and 52 feet round at 5 feet above the ground. Some few 1 saw upwards of 300 feet high, but none in which the thickness was greater than
those I have instanced."
This passage led to the belief that the Wellingtonia was first seen by Douglas in his Californian
explorations; but this is now known to be a mistake. Mr William Lobb has shewn, from the route followed
by Douglas, and which is perfectly known, that he never came within a hundred and twenty miles
of
* " Geographical Distribution of Mammals." by Andrew Murray. Day & Son, London.
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