Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-16

ture, sis the largest tree as to height
in the world"
"One of the sequoiss?'
"Ne," was the reply. 'Uncle Sam
has done pretty well with trees, but
when it comes to height the British
| lion takes the belt, as the lofliest trees
are found ia the Australian dominion.
This picture is photograph of one
found by a traveller 10 the Black
range of Berwick, and it is estimated
at five hundred feet from the ground
to the topmost branch. Think of it a
moment" continued the speaker.
Five hundred feet means a good
deal 1t would dwarf the Bartholdi
statute; Trinity would look like a tel
egraph pole compared to it; the
Brooklyn bridge would be no
where; Strasburg cathedral, the
highest building on the globe,
would be fifty~four feet below
the birds nests on the top branches,
and if the giant was placed by the
side of the pyramid of Cheops, the
leaves of the eucalyptus would still
be twenty feet above it. That's the
kind of trees they have IN Australia,
and they are undoubtedly the largest
on the globe, though it is claimed that
the California specimens are more i'm
pressive for their greater bulk. The
gum trees, as the Australian giants
are called, are a comparatively mod
ern discovery, aud for long time 1t
was impossible to approach them, but
now roads are broken, and travellers
can ride directly at the foot of several.
One of the first known, a Kanni ELL
calyptus Eucalyptus colossal of
botanist, was discovered in glen of
the Warren river, western Australia.
When found by party of riders, it
was PROSTATE upon the ground, and
four riders abreast entered the trunk,
that was estimated as 400 feet in
length. Another species, E. Angola
lima, measured by Boyle in the gloomy
forest of DaudenOng, was found to
be 420 feet long, while another, now
growing on the Black spur, ten
miles from Healesville, is 480 feet
high. These measurements, you see,
are far ahead Of the California trees,
one of the largest, that [ think is
known as The Father Of the Forest,
only measuring 435 feet, and being
10 feet in circumference at the base
| The one called The Mother of the For
est measures 800 in height, with a cir
conference at the base of 80 feet
When they felled the famous Travel
err in 1853, and, by the way, every
man that had hand in it ought to
have been sent to Dry Tortugas, it
took five or six men nearly month
to bring it to the ground, and they had
all kinds of tools TO work with, punp-
augurs, wedges, and every thing you
could think of.
"For q good many years the trees
were subjected to all sorts of indigni-
ties, and I have list of over thirty
names of so'called civilized human
beings that / copied from the bark
where they had been carved. Nearly
every body feels called upon to do this :;
but the rest, who have no knife or are
too lazy, have contented themselves
with building fires around the roots.
Why" continued the excited botanist,
upon nay word / would as soon think
Of carving my name on my great
grandfather's back, or Of burning my
grandmother at the stake, as hacming
these trees.
Most all the California trees grow
a limited area, embracing about
240 miles, and in all about two huh
dred big trees have been discovered,
though in other parts of the Sierra
Nevadas there may be many more
that will be discovered when the
country is opened up"
"Can the age of these large trees be
determined" asked the writer.
mot to certainty" was the reply.
I'm those extremely old fellows the
lines are not easily determined, but if
you want a guess. should say that,
when King David was fourishing the
seeds of these giants were sprouting.
In one that | have examined, two
thousand annual rings could easily be
counted, but around the so>called
heart Of the tree they multiplied so
rapidly that it was impossible to
count them; but it was very evident
that some of the trees are very much
older than the earth IN which they
grew, that is, presupposing that we
go by biblical time. In short, the
trees may be all the way from two to
ten thousand years old. That this is
not wild statement you can see by
taking the case Of the great
tree known as the Dragons Blood
of the Canary Islands. Someone had
the curiosity 10 hunt up the history of
it, and found that descriptions Of it,
written several hundred yeass ago,
agreed exactly with those of to-day
so that, say in three hundred years
the tree has not changed at all in gen
eral appearance. The legends of the
natives say that the tree was worship
ed by the original inhabitants. In
the fifteenth century the Roman
Catholic priest stationed there used its
hollow, or partly hollow, trunk as a
room in which to say mass, and the
ruins of the altar can be seen to-day.
It was discovered Or revealed to science,
so to speak, in the days when the
father of Columbus was a child, or
about 1402, and since then has not