Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-09-12
TERN $500 PER YEAR
sOMEFAMOUS BIG TREES.
Australian Giants Overtop those OF Cali
fornia.


said botanist, holding microscopic
slide in one hand and picture of n
great tree in the other. "This is a dia-
tom. one of the smallest vegetable or
canisms, invisible to the naked eye,
while this" hourishing the picture, 'is
the largest tree as to height In the
world"
zone of the seQuoias?"
"No," was the reply. "UnTle Sam
has done pretty well with trees, but
when il comes to height the British
Lion takes the belt, as the loftlest
trees are found in the Australian do
minion. This picture is photograph
of one found by n travelerm the Black
range of Berwick, and 1t is estimated
at 500 feet from the ground to the top
most branch. Think oft moment"
continued the speaker. Five hun
dred feet means good deal ltwouid
dwarf the Bartholdi statue. Trinity
would look like a telegraph pole COM
pared to it, the Brooklyn bridge would
| be nowhere; Strasburg Cathedral, the
highest building on the globe would
/ be tiity-four feet below the birds nests
on the top branches, and, If the giant
was placed by the side OF the
pyrimid of Cheops, the leaves OF the
! eucalyptus would still be twen-
ty feet above it. That's the
kind of trees they have i'll Australia,
and they are undoubtedly the largest
on the globe, though it is claimed
that the California specimens aremore
impressive from theirgreat bulk. The
gum trees, as the Australian giants
are called, are a comparatively mod
ern discovery, and for a long time 1t
was impossible to approach them, but
now roads are broken, and travellers
can ride directly to the foot of several.
One of the first known, a kanni eucalyp-
tus Eucalyptus colossea) Ofbotanists,
was discovered in a glen OF the Warren
river, Western Australia. When found
by party of riders, 1t was prostrate
upon the ground and four riders
abreast entered the trunk, that was
estimated at 400 feet in length. An
other species f. Amzgdalina, measur-
ed by BOYLE in the gloomy forest OF
Daudenong, was found to be 42O feet
long, while another, now growing on
the Black Spur, ten miles from Heales-
vile, is 4SO feet high. These meas
urements, you see, are far ahead ofthe
California trees, one OF the largest,
that think is known as The Father
of the Forest, only measuring 435 feet,
and being ] o feet in circumference at
the base. The one called The Moth
er of the Forest measures 32O in
height, with q circumference at the
, base of 90 feet. Ween they felled the
. famous Traveller in 1858, and, by the
| Iot hn1 n no nd in n
ought to have been sent to Dry Tor
, tugas, it took five or six men nearly a
month to bring it to the ground, and
, they had all kinds OF tools to work
{ with, pump augurs, wedges, and every
| thing you could think OF.
2 "For a good many years the trees
| were subjected to all kinds OF indlgnl-
. ties, and | have n list OF over thirty
{ names of so-called civilized human be-
: ings 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
o law, have contented themselves with
p building fires around the roots. Why"
o continued the excited botanist, "upon
. nv word | would as soon think OF
Q carving my name on my great-grand-
\ fathers back, or of burning my grand
\ mother at the stake, as harming these
!. trees.
' "Can the age of these large trees be
/ determined?" asked the writer.
$ "Not to a certainty" was the reply.
"In those extremely old fellows the
lines are not easily determined, but if
YOU want guess, | should say that,
when King David was flourishing, the
e seeds of thesegiantsw were sprouting. In
: one that have examined, two thou
sand annual rings could easily be
IL counted, but around the so-called heart
s of the tree they multiplied so rapidly
o that it was impossible to count them;
|. but it was very evident that some of
the trees were much older than the
u earth in which they grew, that Is, pre-
e supposing that we go by Biblical time.
& In short, the trees may be all the way
,f from two to ten thousand years old.
That this is not wild statement you
le can see by taking the case OF the great
10 tree known as the Dragons Blood,
n of the Canary Islands. Some one had
a the curiosity to hunt up the history
of il. and found that descriptions ofit,
'e written several hundred years ago,
| agreed exactly NllH 'hOoC VI w 80 ,
y so that say in three hundred years the
of tree has not changed at all lngenerai
n appearance. The legends OF the ma
re tives say that the tree was worshIped
Y. by the original inhabitants. In the
if; fifteenth century the Roman Catho
n lie priest stationed there used its hol
an low, or partly hollow, trunk as 9
he room in which to say mass, and th'
r. ruins of the altar can be seen to-day
II was discovered, or revealed to- SCI
re ence, so to speak, in the days whel
ct the father OF Columbus was child, o
yn about ,4O2 and since then has no
TO changed in the slightest. When Hum
in bolt visited it in 1899 he still found
ly forty-five feet in circumference, and 81
it stands to-day, hale and hearty lus
as as it was 4S3 years ego, when hrs
pw seen by European, andshow long 0'
lit fore it has been growing no onegnow'
es,
e's They slowly approached the hous
Tin he with sad, deiectei air and 81
ab- with a scorniul look upon her your
er' face. II cannot imagine, my. dear
Inc he said mo ,ruiuIly, as they gained Il
v#faNsT