Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-06-11
For the Watehman.
Our Lecture on Trees---No. T..
ny J. MILTON sTEARNs.

One grand development Of nature re-
mains to be noticed in this line Of veget
able creation-I mean that which is seer
in what is known as the big trees of Cali
fornia.
These are not numerous, comparatively
speaking; there are probably not NOR,
than six to eight hundred Of these trees il
all California 1t is said there are about
four hundred in the Mariposa grove; auC
not a fourth as many Of what are knowr
as the Calaveras trees These trees are
sort Of redwood, or cedar, whose reported
dimensions are almost incredible to thos,
who have not actually seen them They
range from thirty TO hundred feet in cir
conference, and from ten to thirty.six fee
in diameter at the base, and are from two
to three hundred feet in height, still living
and growing from year to year, their eycl
green boughs wearing the freshness o
spring. These trees are located high up OF
the mountains, at least three thousand fno
five thousand feet above the level Of The
sea. Their great age with many would
scarcely be believed. | have a piece Of one
of the largest Of these trees, in which
count fourteen year circles to an inch il
diameter. If these year circles were uni
form, the number of inches from the cen
ter of the tree 10 the rcumference. mul
tiplied by II, would give the number
of years since this tree sprung up in these
remote mountains Counting its semi d.
ameter at Is feet, its age would exceed
three thousand years. 1t was cut down Q
few years since, by boring pump auger hole,
horizontally across its base, so as to cut
into each other, and when the auger hole,
had cut quite across the trunk, the tree
came down with a terrible crash, almost
with the violence Of an earthquake. Thi,
tree was sound at the base, and the stumr
has been smoothed off so il is used as the
floor of house, some thirty feet across
with octagonal sides A ladder Of some TWEEN.
ty feet in length is necessary to ascend the
top Of the butt-log as it lays upon the
ground. The body of the tree is being
worked up into specimens and sold to tour.
lists. Some of these trees are hollow at
the butt, so that horsemen ride under
their standing trunks, dozen or more at a
time.
We come back to the age Of these giant
lords Of the forest, that have come down
fresh with life for three thousand years.
IT, as living intelligence, they had surviv-
ed thus long, what a history would the body
Of these trees disclose? Had they been in
Asia Minor, they might have been planted
by the propbe, Samuel, and have cbronicled
the eventful days of David and Solomon
and the kings Of Judea and Samaria, and
have shaded from the sun and the storm the
prophets, whose truthful and authoritative
deliverances were the light of those remote
ages.
To aid our conception Of their antiquity,
l cite an illustration. A poet has looked
upon an exhumod mummy from the Egyp.
tian Catacomb, aud has thus apostrophood
this relict Of ancient manhood
In Theees streets three thousand ears ago,
When the Memnonium in all It's glory
Ere old time began TO overthrow
Those temples, palaces and piles stupendOus,
Of which the very ruins are tremendous
" Speak, thou long enough hast acted dummy
Thou hast tongue. come let US hear its tonei
Thou art standing on thy legs above ground mummy,
Reyisltas the glimpses OF the moon
Not like thin ghosts, or dsemboded creatures,
But with thy bones and flesh and limbs and features.
/" l need not ask thee if that hand when armed
Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuekled.
For thou vert dead and buried and embalned
Ere Romulous OF Remus had been sucked.
Antiquity appears 10 have begun
Long after thy prmeval race vas run"
But these old trees have been the con-
of life, and not the relets OF
death, through all these centuries, and they
may be destined yet to live thousand
years. Think Of 1.-THE progenitor of
these old trees might have been among
the earliest specimens of vegetable life at
the creation. When we count the year
circles Of these trees, and think IL the lon
gevity Of Adam, and that had il continued
in his children, the grandson of Methuse-
lab might be talking to us to-day, and
that old Methuselah himself might have
planted these mountain forests-we enlarge
our conceptions Of uncounted years, though
the shortness Of liie's modern journey gives
an impression of sadness. True, we have
the same world that smiled so joyous on
creations morning. The same old rolling
oceans aud the same lofty mountains as
graced the world when the Ark rested on
Ararat. But all that had life has changed,
md all is changing now. But the law of
vegetable life is impersonated in these trees,
Is it has operated for thirty cepturies.-
Venerable men," as said Webster iu ad-
lressing the heroes of our revolution, "You
rave come down to us from former gen
'ration." But these old patriots have gone
o their rest. But 70 venerable trees still
uryive the fires and storms of war, the
wear Of time and the wreck centuries. On
hese wild Sierras you seem to claim her
tage to last foreyer-no change, no descent,
'ud no derise. And as We turn away from
'our contemplation, we do so with tho i'm
,ression that our ohildren's children may
tand before you with reverence and adj
niration which your position among the
developments Of divine power and the
'henomena Of nature should command.