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1865.] A FOREST INGOMAR AND PARTHENIA.

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chamber, though it occupies less than half the thickness of the immense trunk.

Through a stem lying upon the ground, fire has bored like an auger. Our entire cavalcade, including all the tall men, all the fat men, and all the ample skirts, rode through it from end to end, like a railway train through a tunnel.

One enormous living trunk which parts near the ground into two tall, symmetric, perfect stems, is christened the Faithful Couple. Mr. Clark assured us, in a poetic gush quite unlooked-for from a hermit and a backwoodsman, that they were

'Two souls with but a single thought,

Two hearts that beat as one.'

The faithfulness of this forest Ingomar and Parthenia is like that of some human couples-neither can get away.

The largest standing tree is the Grizzly Giant. Its bark is nearly two feet thick. If it were cut off smoothly, fifty horses could easily stand, or sixteen couples dance, upon the stump. If the trunk were hollowed to a shell, it would hold more freight than a man-of-war or a first-class ocean steamer two hundred and fifty feet long!

One of the Calaveras sequoias was cut down by boring with augers and sawing the spaces between. The work employed five men for twenty-five days. When fully cut off the tree stubbornly continued to stand, only yielding at last to a mammoth wedge and a powerful battering-ram.

The pine cones are cylindrical, and sometimes nearly two feet long. Those of the Big Trees are round, and not larger than apples. Seedlings from them are growing in every country of Europe. They are numerous in English parks, where a mania prevails for coniferous trees. Two hundred are planted in our great Central Park; and many more in the nurseries of western New York. They are thrifty and vigorous: how large they will become is an interesting problem.

There seems to be no convincing or even plausible theory of their origin. I should rather say of their preservation; for they are children of a long-ago climatic era. The age of giants lingers on the entire Pacific coast.

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GRIZZLY GIANT-34 FEET IN DIAMETER. [1865.

Through California and Oregon stupendous redwoods are everywhere numerous; and on the summit of the Sierras, almost a mile above sealevel, grow sugar pines ten and twelve feet in diameter. Well says Holmes:

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'In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth

So far as I know-but a tree and truth.'

It was once thought incredible that the yew should live a thousand years. But these monster sequoias are the world's patriarchs. Some botanists date their birth far back of earliest human history; none estimate their age at less than eighteen hundred years. Perchance their youth saw the awkward, thundering mastodon canter over the hills; and the hundredfeet-long reptile, of many legs and mouth like a volcano, crawl sluggishly through torrid swamps. They were living when the father of poets, old, blind and vagabond, sang his immortal song; when

1865.] A GRAND NATIONAL SUMMER RESORT.

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the sage of Athens, that most Christian heathen,' calmly drank the hemlock; when the carpenter of Judea, from whom the whole world now computes its time, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men.

From the groves we continued on horseback to White and Hatch's; thence by carriage to Mariposa, the stage-coach and civilization. Thousands of cattle browse upon the parched grass and wild oats. Their herders, native Yankees, are the most daring of riders-at full speed leaping off and remounting; and throwing the lasso around any leg or horn of wild horse or ox with unerring precision.

One universal feature of California-rainless for half the year— would have driven Don Quixote distracted: windmills at nearly every house drawing water from wells for irrigation.

Traveling time from San Francisco to Yosemite, via Big Trees: four days each way. Preferable route: go by Mariposa and return via Coulterville. Expenses of round trip: about ten dollars per day. Distances via Mariposa:

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An act of Congress has segregated Yosemite valley and the Mariposa groves of Big Trees, from the general public domain, setting them apart as pleasure grounds for the peopie of the United States and their heirs and assigns forever. This wise legislation secures to the proper national uses, incomparably the largest and grandest park, and the sublimest natural scenery in the whole world. They are under the care of a commission appointed by the governor of California for their preservation and protectionto render them accessible, keep them free from mutilation, and see that no vandal hand of Art attempts to improve upon the simplicity and grandeur of Nature.

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INVITED TO CELESTIAL HOSPITALITIES. [1865.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

FROM our out-of-the-world journeyings to Yosemite and the Big Trees, we returned to terrestrial pursuits and Celestial hospi talities. The latter were tendered in the following invitation to each of the four members of our party, printed upon slips of gilt. edged, pink paper, in shape and size like commercial envelopes:

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2. (First enclosure.)‘The keeper of the Luh-hwui saloon presents compliments. (Luh-hwui signifies ' Collecting from all quarters.')

1865.]

SITTING DOWN TO THE BANQUET.

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3 and 4. (Second enclosure.) "This noon a slight repast awaits light.'-('Awaits your presence.') Ordinarily Chinese characters read in column from top to bottom and from right to left. But here, as usual in cases of compliment, the upper, left-hand character for 'light' (used by Chinese custom instead of the pronoun 'you,') is elevated to the top of a new line, as a mark of respect.

In addition to the guests of the evening, thirty-five prominent American gentlemen, and thirty leading Chinese residents received this card:

SAN FRANCISCO, AUGUST 15, 1865.

You are respectfully invited to attend a complimentary dinner, to be given to the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, speaker of the United States House of Representatives; the Hon. Wm. Bross, lieutenant-governor of Illinois; Albert D. Richardson, New York Tribune, and Samuel Bowles, Springfield (Mass.) Republican, by the SIX CHINESE COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA, on Thursday, August 17, at the Hang Heong Restaurant, No. 308 Dupont Street, near Clay, at six P. M. In behalf of

Chui Sing Tong, President of Sam Yap Company.
Khing Fong, President of Yueng Wo Company.
Ting Sang, President of See Yap Company.
Wae Nga, President of Ning Yeong Company.
Chee Shum, President of Hop Wo Company.
Mum Kuae, President of Yan Wo Company.

In a previous chapter I have spoken of the Six Companies, to some one of which every Chinaman in the United States belongs. The six presidents are elective, largely salaried, and of high ability. At the restaurant, they awaited us in rich native dress, with shaved heads and braided cues hanging almost to the ground. Upon our introduction by Mr. Carvalho, the official interpreterborn in China of American parents-they bowed profoundly, and through him tendered assurances of their most distinguished consideration.

The Hang Heong restaurant, of wood, two and-a-half stories high, was imported ready-made from China. The dining saloon is on the second floor. Its walls are hung with Chinese placards giving names and prices of dishes.

Punctual to the hour we took our places at little round tables, each seating nine or ten persons. Mr. Colfax, with the elite of our entertainers, occupied the central board. The table on his right, where Providence and Celestial etiquette placed Messrs. Bross, Bowles and myself, was surrounded by several other American gentlemen, and three presidents.

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