n the ground in those spots
where the oil is likely to be found. Often, however, the speculator,
after spending time and capital in the experiment, finds that no oil
appears at his call.

In some spots, where it was first discovered, after the boring was
completed, some hundreds of tons flowed up so rapidly, that it was
difficult to find casks sufficient to preserve the produce. The whole
region round is impregnated with the odour of the oil. Long teams of
waggons come laden with casks of oil on the roads approaching the wells.
Sheds for repairing the casks, and storing the oil, are ranged around.
Every one gives indubitable signs by their appearance of their
occupation, while rock-oil, as it is called, is the only subject of
conversation in the neighbourhood.

MAMMOTH TREES AND CAVERNS OF CALAVERAS.

Gigantic as are the trees found in many of the eastern forests of
America, they are far surpassed by groves of pines discovered a few
years back in the southern parts of California. They are found in small
groves together--in some places only three or four of the more gigantic
in size; in others, as many as thirty or forty, one vying with the other
in height and girth. In one grove, upwards of one hundred trees were
found, of great size, twenty of which were about seventy-five feet in
circumference. One of these trees, of greater size than its companions,
was sacrilegiously cut down. Its height was 302 feet, and its
circumference, at the ground, 96 feet. As it was impossible to cut it
down, it was bored off with pump-augers. This work employed five men
for twenty-two days. Even, after the stem was fairly severed from the
stump, the uprightness of the tree and breadth of its base sustained it
in its position, and two days were employed in inserting wedges and
driving them in; but at length the noble monarch of the forest was
forced to tremble, and then to fall, after braving the battle and the
breeze for nearly three thousand winters.

Many of the trees have received appropriate names. One has fallen, and
has been hollowed out by fire. Through it a person can ride on
horseback for sixty feet. Its estimated height, when standing, was 330
feet, and its circumference, 97 feet. Another of these giants is known
as Hercules. It is 320 feet high, and 95 feet in circumference.
Perhaps the most beautiful group is that of three trees known as the
Three Graces. Each of them measures 92 feet in circumference at the