served forever for the scientific study and pleasure not only of the people of the United States but also of the world, for the great sequoias are to be found only in California. This grove given to the government by Mr. and Mrs. Kent is one of the only tracts of redwood forests to be found in its natural state in California to-day. The land is said to have cost Mr. Kent $47,000 some years ago, but the redwood timber alone is now valued at more than $150,000.

Within a radius of fifty-two miles of the canyon live two-thirds of the population of California. There is no other redwood grove in the world more accessible to so many people. The canyon is in absolutely primeval condition. It is within an hour's ride of San Francisco.

So long as the land remained in private ownership there was danger that the trees would be attacked, but as a National Monument they will be safe for all time. There are finer stands of redwood in California, but there are no typical groves owned by the United States nor are there any which might be acquired by the government except at great expense.

Originally this land was part of the old Spanish grant, Rancho Sausalito. The largest redwoods are eighteen feet in diameter at the butt and will approach 300 feet in height, rising with perfectly straight and clean stems. Their age is somewhat problematical, but they are believed to be from 1,000 to 1,500 years old.*

Except for a narrow strip of brush along the east border and a fringe along the southwest line, the whole canyon is covered with a dense forest growth. Redwood is the dominating tree, towering high above everything else and forming fully three-fourths of the forest. Douglas fir is next in importance, and scattered over the entire tract are all the various hard woods common to the region, chief among which are the numerous oaks, madrona, alder, maple

*Not as old, probably, as the Sequoia gigantea in the Calaveras grove, estimated by John Muir to be 4,000 years old.

and mountain laurel, all of which form a kind of dwarf underwood to the lofty redwood and fir.

The destruction of redwood by lumbering has been so rapid in the last decade that it is now only a question of years when the original growth, unprotected as in this Park, will have wholly disappeared. The gift of Mr. and Mrs. Kent is therefore of the highest scientific, educational and scenic value.

JEWEL CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

On February 7, 1908, pursuant to the "Act for the preservation of American antiquities" referred to under the preceding head, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation reserving from settlement, entry and all forms of appropriation under the land laws, the natural formation known as the Jewel Cave, which is situated upon the public land within the Black Hills National Forest in the State of South Dakota, setting it apart as a National Monument. The President's proclamation declares that "the reservation made by this proclamation is not intended to prevent the use of the lands for the purposes consistent with the withdrawal made by this proclamation, or for forest purposes under the proclamation establishing the Black Hills National Forest, but the two reservations shall both be effective on the land withdrawn, but the National Monument hereby established shall be the dominant reservation."

The preservation of this cave possesses so much scientific and scenic interest that we present in the following paragraphs, by the co-operation of the Department of the Interior, the substance of the report of Mr. II. C. Neel, Forest Assistant, and Mr. C. W. Fitzgerald, Surveyor.

Jewel Cave, which is located thirteen miles west and south of Custer, the county seat of Custer county, South Dakota, was dis

covered on August 18, 1900, by two prospectors, Albert and F. W. Michaud, whose attention was attracted by the noise of wind coming from a small hole in the limestone cliffs on the east side of Hell Canyon. In the hope of discovering some valuable mineral and the source of the wind, these men, in company with one Charles Bush, set about to enlarge the opening, to accomplish which considerable work was necessary. For three years the two Michaud brothers spent almost their entire time developing the cave and since then they, together with one or two helpers, have spent about four months each year in this work. The ground on which the cave is situated was located by them as a mineral claim, being known as the Jewel Cave, which is held for jasper and manganese. Both of these minerals are found in the cave, but to what extent is not definitely known.

The prospectors, however, were encouraged more by the aesthetic possibilities of the cave than by its mineral possibilities to extended exploration. They have followed the main descending wind passage for a distance of one and one-half miles, which point the explorers believe to be from six to seven hundred feet below the entrance, and have explored numerous side galleries and passages. However, the cave is far from being fully explored.

The cave as far as known is located in limestone formation and is apparently the result of the action of water. A prominent geologist who visited this cave believes it to be an extinct geyser channel. The cave as far as explored consists of a series of chambers, connected by narrow passages with numerous side galleries. The galleries increase in size as the distance from the entrance becomes greater.

The explorers have been careful observers of the action of the wind within the cave. They have discovered that ordinarily the wind blows in and out of the cave for regular periods, the periods of blowing in and out being fifteen hours each, although they have