Show NEARBY AND YONDER off the beaten path to un usual places and things by T T MAXEY daylon the general grant tree trea tin THE TO Ge general grant la Is the only tree tre la america to have a national park valued tor for it the general gront grant national park was created for thes th tola sole purpose of preserving this franq gran old patriarch this sequoia Is feet high over feet in circumference estimated to be over years old and contains ampro feet of lumber its park covers about 2600 2500 acres on the western slope of 0 the sierra nevada mountains in california john muir the naturalist lived among the he sequoias lie ile penned this beautiful word picture about them no description can give any adequate idea of their singular majesty much less of their beauty only la in youth does it show like other co conifers niters a 11 heavenward yearning keenly aspiring with a long quirk quick growing top indeed the whole tree for the first century or two or until to feet high Is arrowhead in form and compared with the solemn rigidity of age Is in as an sensitive to the wind as a squirrel tall the lower branches tire are gradually dropped croppe d as it grows older and the he upper oles thinned out tilt till comparatively few are left these however are developed to great size divide again and again and in fin well rounded masses of leafy bran branchless branch chieti lets while the head becomes dome shaped then poised in fullness of structure and beauty stern and solemn in mien it glows with eager enthusiastic life quivering to the top of every branch and far reaching root calm as a granite dome the first to feet feel the touch of the rosy beams of the morning the lost last to bid the sun good night |