THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA.
We have previously spoken of the large Sequoiæ of California, which have justly a universal celebrity, and shall now render our remarks upon the subject completer.
If there is any sight that can throw us into mute contemplation and show us the littleness of our own nature, it is assuredly that of high mountains like Mont Blanc, or waterfalls like Niagara. But yet we do not at the first instant take in all the grandeur of these, but must make the tour of Mont Blanc, or pass under the falls of Niagara and study it at different points in order to obtain a just idea of such marvels. And so it is with regard to the vegetable curiosities of the Sierra Nevada, in California.
When points for comparison fail us, our eye, one of the most imperfect of instruments, never gives us an accurate idea of objects, and it is for this reason that we have placed upon the annexed figure a five-story Paris house, drawn to the same scale as the "Grizzly Giant," one of the most ancient Sequoiæ of the Mariposa Grove, in California. This true vegetable giant is 105 feet in diameter at the base, and 69 feet at 13 feet from the ground. It has, like many of the Sequoiæ that surround it, been struck by lightning, but, in spite of that, its total height is still more than 300 feet. Some of its branches are more than six feet in diameter. Those who have seen our old oaks in the forest of Fontainebleau will be able to compare the effect of time and lightning upon such venerable relics, these in California being possibly contemporaries of the Roman Empire. A few of the trees have been razed to the base, and serve as floors for dancing halls, while others, that have fallen, have been cut lengthwise and serve as bowling alleys. What especially distinguishes the wonderful region in which these Sequoiæ grow is the cleanness and beauty of the plains upon which they are found. In the virgin forests of South America, under the influence of a warm and damp atmosphere, the vegetation is so rank that, in order to open a passage, one is obliged to use an ax on the vines and thickets of interlaced plants. In California, on the contrary, the Sequoiæ, which are situated at an altitude of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, are easily accessible. The routes are almost traced by nature, dangerous animals are rare, the summer temperature is delicious there, and hotels are everywhere being erected, as in Switzerland, to serve as a retreat and promenading place for tourists.—La Nature.
THE "GRIZZLY GIANT," ONE OF THE CALIFORNIAN SEQUOIÆ.
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