ns and
heavy fogs. They cover an area of about 2000 sq. m. almost unmixed with
other species. One fine grove stands S. of San Francisco near Santa
Cruz. These noble trees attain very often a height of more than 300 ft.,
frequently of 350 and even more, and a butt diameter of more than 15 to
20 ft., with clean, straight fluted trunks rising 200 ft. below the
lowest branches. They grow in a very dense timber stand; single acres
have yielded 1,500,000 ft. B.M. of lumber, and single trees have cut as
high as 100,000 ft. The total stand in 1900 was estimated by the United
States census as 75,000,000,000 ft., and the ordinary stand per acre
varies from 25,000 to 150,000 ft., averaging probably 60,000 ft. The
redwood is being rapidly used for lumber. There is nowhere any
considerable young growth from seed, although this mode of reproduction
is not (as often stated) unknown; the tree will reproduce itself more
than once from the stump (hence its name). In thirty years a tree has
been known to grow to a height of 80 ft. and a diameter of 16 in. The
wood contains no pitch and much water, and in a green condition will not
burn. To this fact it owes its immunity from the forest fires which
wreak frightful havoc among the surrounding forests. As the redwood is
limited to the Coast Range, so the big tree is limited wholly to the
Sierra Nevada. Unlike the redwood the big tree occurs in scattered
groves (ten in all) among other species. Its habitat extends some 200
m., from latitude 36 deg. to 39 deg., nowhere descending much below an
altitude of 5000 ft., nor rising above 8000 ft. The most northerly grove
and the nearest to San Francisco is the Calaveras Grove near Stockton;
the Mariposa Grove just south of the Yosemite National Park, is a state
reservation and easily accessible to tourists. The noblest groves are
near Visalia, and are held as a national park. The average height is
about 275 ft., and the diameter near the ground 20 ft.; various
individuals stand over 300 ft., and a diameter of 25 ft. is not rare.
One tree measures 35.7 ft. inside the bark 4 ft. above the ground, 10
ft. at 200 ft. above the ground, and is 325 ft. tall. Specimens have
been cut down that were estimated to be 1300 and even 2200 years old;
many trees standing are presumably 2500 years old. It is the opinion of
John Muir that the big tree would normally live 5000 years or more; that
the California groves are still in their prime; that, contrary to
general i