Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-07-16

ture, sis the largest tree as to height
in the world"
Zone of the sequel s?'
me, was the reply. "Uncle Sam
has done pretty well with trees, but
when it comes to height the British
hon takes the belt, as the loftiest trees
are found ia the Australian dominion.
This picture is photograph of one
found by a traveller in 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 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 Ia 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, an 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 eu>
calyptus (EucdiyptuS colossal of
botanist, was discovered in a 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 ia the gloomy
forest of Dau3enong, was found to
be 420 feet long, while another, now
growing on the Black spur, ten
miles from Healesville, is $50 feet
high. These measurements, you see,
are far ahead of the California trees,
one Of the largest, that l think is
known as The Father of the Forest,
only measuring 435 feet, and being
| ITO 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 90 feet.
When they felled the famous Travel
err in 1858, and, by the way, every
man that had hand in it ought to-
have been sent to Dry Tortagas, it
| took five or six men nearly month
to bring it to the ground, and they had
all kinds of tools to work with, pump
augurs, wedges, and everything you
could think of.
For a good many years the trees
were subjected to all sorts OF indigni-
ties, and | have list of over thirty
names of so'called civilized human
beings that copied from the bark
where they had been carved. Nearly
everybody 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, F" continued the excited botanist.
upon my word / would as soon think
of carving my name on my great
grandfather's back. or of burning my
grandmother at the stake, as harming
/ these trees.
Most ali the California trees grow
n 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 viii be discovered when the
country is opened up"
"Can the age of these large trees be
determinedn 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 a guess, | should say that,
when King David was hourishing the
seeds of these giants were sprouting.
la one that | have examined, two
thousand annual rings could easily be
couated, but arouLd the so>caIled
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
grow, that is, presupposing thai we
90 DIV 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 to 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 ffteeath 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.
1t was discovered or revealed to science,
so to speak, in the days when the
father of Columbus was child, or
about 1402, and since then has not
changed in The slightest When