ve the
general surface. Often a surface of weathered rock is so studded with
these symmetrical concretions, that it is hard to believe that one is
not looking at the calcified stumps of a close-growing grove of palms.

[Illustration]

THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA

(FROM STUDIES SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL.)

BY ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

[Illustration]

In the popular accounts of these trees it is usual to dwell only on
the dimensions of the very largest known specimens, and sometimes even
to exaggerate these. Even the smaller full-grown trees, however, are
of grand dimensions, varying from fourteen to eighteen feet in
diameter, at six feet above the ground, and keeping nearly the same
thickness for perhaps a hundred feet. In the south Calaveras grove,
where there are more than a thousand trees, the exquisite beauty of
the trunks is well displayed by the numerous specimens in perfect
health and vigor. The bark of these trees, seen at a little distance,
is of a bright orange brown tint, delicately mottled with darker
shades, and with a curious silky or plush-like gloss, which gives them
a richness of color far beyond that of any other conifer. The tree
which was cut down soon after the first discovery of the species, the
stump of which is now covered with a pavilion, is twenty-five feet in
diameter at six feet above the ground, but this is without the thick
bark, which would bring it to twenty-seven feet when alive. A
considerable portion of this tree still lies where it fell, and at one
hundred and thirty feet from the base I found it to be still twelve
and a half feet in diameter (or fourteen feet with the bark), while at
the extremity of the last piece remaining, two hundred and fifteen
feet from its base, it is six feet in diameter, or at least seven feet
with the bark. The height of this tree when it was cut down is not
recorded, but as one of the living trees is more than three hundred
and sixty feet high, it is probable that this giant was not much short
of four hundred feet.

[Illustration: THE "MOTHER OF THE FOREST."]

In the accompanying picture the dead tree in the centre is that from
which the bark was stripped, which was erected in the Crystal Palace
and unfortunately destroyed by fire. It is called the "Mother of the
Forest." The two trees nearer the foreground are healthy, medium-sized
trees, about fifteen feet diameter at six feet above the ground.

The huge decayed trunk called "Father of the F