CONTENTS +Part One+ SEQUOIAS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY I—+The Auld Lang Syne of Trees+ 13 II—+The Glory of the Mountains of California+ 23 +Part Two+ GIANT SEQUOIAS OF THE MARIPOSA GROVE III—+Galen Clark+ 35 IV—+Wonder Trees+ 59 V—+Oldest of Living Things+ 89 VI—+The Eternal Tree+ 102 VII—+A Blossom of Decadence+ 115 +Part Three+ NAMING OF THE SEQUOIA VIII—+A Name for the Ages+ 127 IX—+Sequoyah+ 134 +Bibliography+ 159 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Sun Worshippers Frontispiece In the Court of the Giants 24 Galen Clark 40 Galen Clark Tree 48 The Cabin 64 Telescope Tree 72 Wawona Tree 80 Fallen Monarch 96 Grizzly Giant 104 Alabama Tree 120 Sequoyah 136 The Invincible Sequoia 144 PART ONE Sequoias _of_ Yesterday _and_ Today +Chapter I+ THE AULD LANG SYNE OF TREES The Sequoia is nature’s most magnificent endowment. King of trees, it has no rival in size the world over, nor is it approached among living things in age. Noblest of all conifers, it has the grandeur of granite and the solemnity of marble. Venerable in aspect, it savors of great antiquity, seeming always to wrap itself in the memories of the past. So striking, indeed, is this feature of its appearance that the intellectual traveler often wonders if its race has played a grander part in the past. Is it a living survivor of an extinct age of monsters?