Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 4 (1859-1860) (600 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 600
484 HUTCHINGS’ CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE.
Indeed, many of the largest and noblest
looking are badly deformed from this
cause. Still, beautiful clumps of from
three to ten trees in each, and others
standing alone, are numerous, sound, and
well formed.
“Passing up the ravine, or basin,”
says Mr. J. Lamson, who kindly sent us
the sketch from which this engraving is
made— we came to a large stem, whose
top had been stripped of its branches,
giving it somewhat the resemblance of
an immense spear, and forcibly reminding oue of Milton’s description of Satan’s
weapon of that name:
‘To equal which, the tallest pine,
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand.”
Believing this to be far greater than any
tree Milton ever dreamed of, and fully
equal to the wants of any reasonable
tea Asie
SATAN’S SPEAR,
Prince of Darkness, in compliment to
the poet and his hero we named it * Satan’s Spear.’ Its circumference is seventy-eight feet.
“ Several rods to the left of this is another large trunk, with a dilapidated top,
presenting the appearance of a tower,
and is called ‘ The Giant’s Tower’; seventy feet in circumference. Beyond this
stand two double trees, which have been
named ‘ The Twin Sisters.’ Still further
on is a tree with a straight and slender
body, and a profusion of beautiful foliage ; near which frowned a savage looking monster, with a scarred and knotted
trunk, and gnarled and broken branches, bringing to one’s recollection the story of ‘ Beauty and the Beast.’ Crossing
the ravine near ‘Satan’s Spear,’ there
are many fine trees upon the side and
summit of the ridge. One of the finest,
whose circumference is sixty feet, and
whose top consists of a mass of foliage
of exceeding beauty, is called ‘The
Queen of the Forest.. Above these
stands ‘The Artist’s Encampment,’ seventy-seven feet in circumference, though
so large a portion of its trunk has decayed or been burned away to a height
of thirty feet, as materially to lessen its
dimensions.”
This grove of mammoth trees consists
of six hundred, more or less, about one
. fourth of which were measured by Col.
Warren, of the California Farmer, and
Mr. G. Clark, in 1857, and their circumference is given on page 396, Vol. III.,
of this Magazine ; but their altitude has
not yet been ascertained. It must not
be supposed that these large taxodiums
monopolize the one mile by a quarter of
a. wile of ground over which they are
scattered; as some of the tallest, largest
and most graceful of sugar pines and
Douglas firs we ever saw, add their beauty of form and foliage to the group, and
contribute much to the imposing grandeur of the effect.