Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1900 — His Grizzly. [ARTICLE]

His Grizzly.

The author of “Recollections of a Nonagenarian” says that the gigantic sequoias, or denizens of the “Big Tree Grove,” in California, were discovered by a hunter named Dowd, who wasemployed by a water company to procure meat for their workmen. One day, while Dowd was pursuing a grizzly bear which he had wounded, he suddenly came uixjii one of these immense trees, and was amazed at the sight. He forgot Ills bear, and stopping in mid-career, he stepped back and surveyed the tree. Thei\ he walked around it and estimated its height and circumference, after Which he took his way back to camp. He told the men wliatlreTiad seen, but was only laughed at for his Munchausen story. His companions declared that the fright caused by the bear had disordered his vision. Subsequently he. induced some of the men to go with him, ostensibly in quest of a wounded grizzly. Leading the way, bo was soon able to point out the tree, and then exclaimed, “There is the grizzly I spoke of!’’ The story soon spread, and the existence of the grove was ascertained. This has since become a place of resort for visitors from all parts of the State and the land. The whole area occupied by iris about fifty acres* nuti there are nearly one hundred full grown specimens of the species. Twenty of them exceed twenty-live feet in diameter.