The wonders of the world

by John Loraine Abbott

THE MAMMOTH TREE OF CALIFORNIA.

One of the vegetable wonders of the world, is the immense tree discovered, a year or two since, in California. The first reports concerning this huge giant of the forest seemed fabulous, so extraordinary were the particulars; but it is found that the largest statement did not exceed the truth. The tree is a cedar, of the species called arbor vitæ, and was first discovered by some miners in the mountains of Calaveras, California, in a forest called the Redwoods, on Trinidad bay, some twenty or thirty miles from the mouth of Klamath river, on the northern sea-coast of the state, a region that has been but very little explored. A correspondent of the Sonora Herald, who recently made an excursion to see it, thus describes it. “At the ground its circumference was ninety-two feet; four feet above that, it was eighty-eight; and ten feet above that, it was sixty-one feet in circumference; and the tapering of the shaft was very gradual. Its hight, to the end of the trunk, is two hundred and eighty-five feet; or, if we include the topmost branches, three hundred and twenty-five feet. This tree is by no means a deformity, as most trees with large trunks are. It is throughout one of perfect symmetry, while its enormous proportions are inseparable concomitants of its grandeur. I have said that this is the largest tree yet discovered in the world. It is so. The celebrated tree of Fremont would have to grow many centuries before it could pretend to be called anything but a younger brother. It is said that a tree was once found in Senegal, in Africa, whose trunk measured ninety feet in circumference. But nobody has been able to find it since its first discovery. There is a tree in Mexico called the taxodium, which is said to be one hundred and seventeen feet in circumference, but this is said to be formed by the union of several trees. The hight of all these foreign trees is not more, in any case, than seventy feet; and none of the trunks are more than ten feet. The age of this mammoth cedar of California, if each zone may be reckoned one year, is about twenty-five hundred and twenty years. A section of the wood which I brought home with me, exclusive of the sap, which is only about one inch thick, numbers about fourteen zones or grains to the inch. At that rate, if it were permitted to grow, it would increase its diameter one-seventh of an inch every year. In eighty-four years its diameter would be increased one foot; in eight hundred and forty years, ten feet; and in twenty-five hundred and twenty years, it would be forty feet in diameter, and one hundred and twenty in circumference.

“It seems like an act of desecration to cut down such a noble tree, such a magnificent specimen of the growth of the primeval forest. But it has been done, not, however, without a vast deal of labor. It was accomplished by first boring holes through the body with long augers, worked by machinery, and afterward sawing from one to the other. Of course, as the sawing drew to a close, the workmen were on the alert to notice the first sign of toppling, but none came; the tree was so straight and evenly balanced on all sides that it retained its upright position after it had been sawed through. Wedges were then forced in, and a breeze happening to spring up, over went the monster with a crash which was heard for miles around. The bark was stripped from it for the length of fifty feet from the base, and is from one to two feet in thickness. It was taken off in sections, so that it can be placed, relatively, in its original position, and thus give the beholder a just idea of the gigantic dimensions of the tree. So placed, it will occupy a space of about thirty feet in diameter, or ninety feet in circumference, and fifty feet in hight. A piece of the wood will be shown, which has been cut out from the tree across the whole diameter. We are told that this piece of wood shows a vestige of bark near the middle, and that this bark was evidently charred many centuries ago, when the tree was comparatively a sapling.”

Since the above was written, the section of this huge tree alluded to, has been exhibited in Stockton and San Francisco, and thence brought to the United States, so that some of our readers may be able to get a view of this monster of the California woods for a trifling admission fee. In its natural condition, rearing its majestic head toward heaven, and waving in all its native vigor, strength and verdure, it was a sight worth a pilgrimage to see; and it will still be a rich gratification to look upon the section of it, though that will give but a faint idea of what the whole was in its native forest.

Notwithstanding the calculation given above by the writer in the Sonora Herald, it is supposed that this tree can not be less than three thousand years old; for, for a large space on the outer surface next to the bark, the rings of growth are so thin as not to be distinguishable from each other. Add one-third to the hight of Bunker-hill monument, and the outward dimensions of the main trunk of this tree would be about the same. From actual measurement it contained more than three hundred cords of wood. One hundred men could easily stand within the hollow of it at the same time, and a six-foot man rode a full-sized horse through it without touching his hat to the upper surface.