Acquainted with the northern groves where the Sequoias are nearly all aged, they could see in them only pitiful, fast-dwindling stands desperately huddled in patches where environment insured conditions ideal for tree life. This they accepted as evidence that the Sequoia stood at the brink of extinction; that it had outlived its day of vigor and progress, and was but a race in its dotage. The surviving remnants were hardly more than a faint echo of past glory, displaying “the munificence of departing greatness” but expressing, as a race, a blossoming of decadence. Among the first to sound this note of alarm was Asa Gray. Addressing a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1872, he stated: “The _Sequoia gigantea_ of the Sierra exists in numbers so limited that the separate groves may be reckoned upon the fingers, and the trees of most of them have been counted, except near the southern limit, where they are said to be more copious. A species limited in individuals holds its existence by a precarious tenure, and this has a foothold only in a few sheltered spots of a happy mean in temperature and locally favored with moisture in summer. Even then, for some reason or other, the pines, the firs, and even the incense cedars possess a great advantage and wholly overpower the Sequoia in numbers. Seedlings of the big trees occur not rarely, but in a meagre proportion to those of associated trees; and small, indeed, is the chance that these seedlings will attain to ‘the days of the years of their forefathers.’ The force of numbers eventually wins. Whatever the individual longevity, certain if not speedy is the decline of a race in which a high death rate afflicts the young. “In the commonly visited groves _Sequoia gigantea_ is invested in its last stronghold, can neither advance into more exposed positions above, nor fall back into drier and barer ground below, nor hold its own in the long run where it is under the present conditions; and a little drying out of the climate of the region, which must have been much moister than now, would precipitate its doom.” Man, seemingly, has conspired with Nature in bringing the Sequoia under the inexorable law of extinction. He lacks respect for this priceless heritage of earlier ages, for already many of the most magnificent stands of the Sequoia have been logged. If commercialism is allowed to go its wayward way unchecked, posterity will soon be robbed of these last remaining remnants of the forests of the Miocene. Even now man is bringing the age of Mammals to a close. Soon there will be no wild life left except in those spots that are given protection. Outside of these areas, all life will be destroyed save those plants and animals that have been reclaimed from the wild. Then man will stand alone and unchallenged amid the wreck of creation.