The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-05-06
Old Trees.

The oldest tree known to naturalists is
the Great Dragon tree of Orotova, Tener-
life, which was blown downby hurricane
a few months since It was stately tree,
seventy or eighty feet high, as early as A.
D. 1902, and so old and remarkable tree
then as to excite particular notice and care
for it's preservation. When it was destroy
ed it was believed to be not less than
5000 years old On the banks of the
Senega, river, in Africa, there are, or were
in 1748, trees growing, sixty or eighty
feet high, and some thirty feet in diane
ter, which were estimated by Adanson,
the French naturalist, to be over 5000
years old. They are known as the Baobob
or Adansonia. The English yew is an
other very long-lived tree. There are
numbers of these trees in England and
Scotland, which are believed to be from
/, 400,to 5000 years old A cypress tree
in Oaxaca, Mexico which forty years ago
measured $50 feet in height, III in Cir
conference, and which sheltered Herman
do Cortes and his followers under its wide
spreading boughs about the year 1920, is
supposed to be now 1900 years And in
| California there are mammoth expresses
which stretch their heads up 800 or 400
feet and are believed to be some 5000
years old! There are many other trees,
in different parts of the world-single
trees, famous in history, and groups of
trees-as locusts, and oaks, and lines,
elm and pines, nut trees Of different kinds
olive and orange trees, ETC., etc, which
are either absolutely known, or believed
to be, all along, from $50, 440, SIG, $40,
72O, 800, 900, 1000, and SO on, up to 5000
or more years old.-Bost07s zraoe1er.
The PYRAMIDs.-The accurate
measurment Of the sides of the Great
Pyramid is still attracting attention,
and the result Of the labors of the
party of Royal Engineers Of Great
Britain, now engaged in this work,
is waited for with much interest.
The surveys, if correctly made, will
settle many interesting points in
reference to the units Of lenth used
among the ancients. Thus Hero
dotus states that the Egyptian cubit
is equal to the Grecian cubit, and
that the Great Pyramid has sides
exactly five hundred Egyptian or
Greek cubits in length, and covers
exactly twenty-five arure or Egyptian
acres, the arure containing one thou.
sand square cubits. Again, the
Parthenon at Athens, according to
other historians, gives the Greek
, units Of Tenth, and by modern
measurements ofthis ancient building
the mean length of the Greek foot is
II 149 inches, and Of the Greek cubit
1924 inches. Multiplying the cublt
thus ascertained by 500, the length
of the side Of the Great Pyramid
should be 8, 112 inches. The mean
1 length Of the side of the Pyramids,
as obtained by examining the struc-
ture itself, is calculated to be 91l0
} inches, and thus areasonrble accurate
standard Of ancient measures has
! been fixed. The difficulty in the
way Of arriving at the true result is
greatly enhanced by the fact that the
casing stones of the pyramid have
been removed. The sockets cut in
the rock to receive the corr-er blocks
still remain, and the calculations as
to the actual width Of the casing
: stones are affected by errors arising
: from this source.
The depth of snow in the woods OF
Maine is almost unprecedented at this sea-
e son OF the year. In many. places it lies
seven feet deep on level. The Bangor
Wing says some of the gangs Of lumber.
| men In strating to come out, have found il
+ necessary to put their horses upon large
| sleds, to be drawn over the drifts on snow