burned half through, and I spent a day in making an estimate of its age, clearing away the charred surface with an ax, and carefully counting the annual rings with the aid of a pocket lens. The wood rings in the section I laid bare were so involved and contorted in some places that I was not able to determine its age exactly, but I counted over 4,000 rings, which showed that this tree was in its prime, swaying in the Sierran winds, when Christ walked the earth."

Wawona, the beautiful mountain retreat that enchants travelers, is the ideal viewpoint and starting point for sightseers. Foley's delightful Guide

says:

"Within a radius of 10 miles about Wawona are to be found more interesting, varied, and inspiring scenic attractions than in any similar compass the world over. Eight miles to the southeast is the great Mariposa Big Tree Grove, in which are many of the largest trees in the world. This is. the state's grove, and is managed by the Yosemite commissioners. Nothing more delightful and inspiring can be imagined than a picnic jaunt to these wonders. Eight miles westward Signal Peak looms up like a grim sentinel, guarding this peaceful nook. Five miles off to the northeast are the Chilnualna Falls, that would be famous wonders any other place than in this land of big things, while off in the same direction is beautiful Crescent Lake, only 12 miles away, and alive with trout. There is also good fishing in the South Fork of the Merced, which flows within a stone's throw of the hotel.

"A good road and trail enable the visitors to reach the Chilnualna Falls, so that they can enjoy their 300 feet of descent and the sparkling, roaring, foaming cascades below. Rev. John Hannon says that 'Capitol Dome, a towering mass of granite, takes the Chilnualna in its hands, and with its rocky fingers is giving out from its cascades a music of magnificence and beauty nowhere else to be found.'

"Wawona is the Indian name for big tree, and it takes its name from the Mariposa Grove near by. In early days it was known as Clark's, or the Big Tree Station. At one time it was owned by Mr. Galen Clark, formerly guardian of the Yosemite, whose home is now there. Wawona is about 26 miles from the Yosemite and 40 from Raymond, the nearest railroad point, the present terminus of the Yosemite branch of the Southern Pacific.

It is 4,000 feet above sea-level. Here are the headquarters of the Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Co., the largest and most complete now on this coast. To give the visitor some idea of what it costs to operate this stage line, we will mention just one item of expense, and that is, that it takes about 500 horses to stock this road for the season of travel. To get the roads in good condition usually means an outlay of from $3,000 to $5,000. During a year when much snow has fallen, it has frequently to be shoveled out of the entire road between here and the Yosemite. Big drifts of it are sometimes blown out by blasts of black gunpowder.

"The Washburn Bros. not only know how to please their patrons, but they also do it. No wonder, then, that Wawona is yearly becoming more popular. An electric road from Raymond is all that is now necessary to make this one of the greatest resorts of the world. Such a road will, no doubt be built at an early date.

"Signal Peak is one of the many interesting points of view in and around Wawona. It has an altitude of 7,500 feet above the sea. There is a good wagon road completed to within a few rods of its summit. Signal Peak stands out alone, above all its surroundings. Seemingly it was put there to guard the beautiful glen below, and so near by, Wawona. From its summit, the view is almost as complete as in mid-ocean. The radius of this great circle is about 200 miles, so that over 1,200 square miles are to be seen from here, and there is not an uninteresting square mile in this vast area. There is no other point on this western coast where one can see so much territory at once as from here. The rugged, snow-clad peaks of the High Sierras, the towering walls of the Yosemite, the heavily-timbered slopes of the nearer mountains, the vast valley of the San Joaquin, and the far-off summits of the Coast Range melting away in the distance, all combine to form an entrancing panorama, which will never be effaced from the memory of any true lover of nature who has once gazed upon it.' So wrote a visitor in the hotel register at Wawona some years ago. He put it in the same class as the Yosemite and the Big Trees-more can not be said."

Standing within the shadow of the Big Trees one feels a sense of the world's age such as no other scene inspires. To behold giants that were old almost before historic epochs, to hold converse with such heritages of the past takes one nearer to the origin of the world than he can get by any other earthly experience.

CLAUS SPRECKELS.

Claus Spreckels, of San Francisco, is a man of national and world-wide reputation, and his operations in industry and commerce place him among the noted Americans of this and the past century who by force of sheer industry, shrewd business ability and foresight and unexampled executive powers have assumed directing command of the commerce and industrial production of the world and wield a power and influence beside which the regal potentates and vain-glorious military chiefs of the past were mere shadow puppets in the play of history.

The life of Claus Spreckels is one of the interesting and absorbing personal histories of which America is so proud. He was born in Lamstedt, Hanover, Germany, July 9, 1828. At the age of twenty, in 1848, he came to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was employed in the humble capacity of grocery clerk, at small pay. Right here his genius for executive management and commercial control soon became apparent, for after a year and a half he bought out his employer with a promise to pay, and in one year was able to meet all his debts and have the store for his own. In 1855 he sought a larger field in New York city, where he established a wholesale and retail grocery. He soon afterward purchased a grocery business in San Francisco from his brother, and in June, 1856, he started for California. In 1857 he established the Albany Brewery in San Francisco, and after conducting both enterprises for a time, sold the store. His next concern was the establishment of the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but two years later he sold this and went to Europe to study more thoroughly the production and refining of beet sugar. While in Europe he entered a beet sugar factory as a workman, and thus became familiar with all the details of the industry. He discovered that beet sugar could not at that time be manufactured in the United States with profit, and he accordingly returned to California and started the California Sugar Refining Company, which has grown to such proportions that it is now a landmark of San Francisco.

Mr. Spreckels, in the course of some visits to the Sandwich Islands, was impressed with the possibilities of sugar-cane culture and leasing twenty thousand acres of land for his purpose from the government, he developed it and made cane-growing one of the foremost industries of those ocean realms. This enterprise not only profited himself, but was of untold benefit to the islanders, in recognition of which King Kalakaua made him a knight commander of the Order of the Kalakaua.

Mr. Spreckels was one of the organizers of the Independent Electric Light and Power Company and of the Independent Gas Company in San Francisco, being the first president. With the immense fortune acquired through his varied enterprises he has been one of the most liberal men of California, and many public and charitable institutions have reason to be grateful that such a liberal and broad-minded captain of industry exists,