Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-09-11
AusrRALAsIAn FORESTS.
The Nandals ot New Zealand Are Cat
tirg Dawn the Gigantic Trees.

The NandaIs Of New Zealand Are Cut
tirg Down the Gigantic Trees.
Tho kauri pine Is undisputed sovereign
of the Austr.llasian forest. No other
tree can approach il IN grandeur of pro
portion ur IN impressiycncss when, as
one of "A clan. IL holds "a Us own stretches
Of country hundreds Of nils in extent.
Perhaps the sight which the kauri grove
presents to the eye is unequalcd in the
whole realm uf nature. As the traveller 4
Eazes around him in the recesses of the /
forest he is impressed even against his |
will To walk between those mighty !
pillars. smooth and dark as ebony, uni |
form in age and size. and buried in a
perennial twilight and silence that the
widest storm only disturbs by the
merest ripple If sound, awakens feel
ing Of awe
Mile upon mile they stretch into dis
tance, in a majestic procession that fol-
lows every irregularity of the land, like
some colossal temple dedicated to night
or melancholy, the somber aisles full of
an awful mouotony and solemn still
ness. Like the Egyptian Sphinx, they
ignore the lapse of time, preserving the
same majestic calm and unvarying ex-
preston before the cataclysms which
have altered the whole aspects of the
globe. and before the social upheavals
which have swept away civilizations as
If they had never been.
/ The youth of the oldest kauri groves
is shrouded in the mists Of the past. But
that they are very ancient is beyond
doubt. They were mere saplings when
the Pharaohs adorned the land Of Egypt
with imperishable memorials Of their
power, and were still slight and grace
full when Solomon filled the east with
the fame of his glory; they stood in all
the pride uf maturity when Hannibal
crossed the Alps, and Rome entered on
her victorious career They have seen
the splendid dawn of all the great en-
pircs Of the world. and seen them set in
gloom, when the canker of decay had
sapped their very foundations.
But the kauri has now fallen upon
evil days. its closing years are full Of
danger. 1t has survived to see the forms
of life, long dead in the great masses Of
land. fade away before the vigorous
fauna and fora of another order of things.
At no distant date il also, like the na-
tives, the birds, the grasses, will have
passed into the mcasnrelcss oblivion
from whence il came. In the presence
of this venerable giant pine Of Maori
land, the grandcst representative of a
primitive age, the colonial, creature Of
yesterday, feels like pigmy as he gazes
on the solemn files on every side. AS
though ashamed Of his own littleness
and painful nowness. he is possessed
only with the passion Of destruction.
The wcirdneas inseparable from the
very nature of a kauri forest Is intensi-
fed by the total absence of animal life.
The contented drouing of insects, the
hum Of the hee, the glad singing Of
birds, SO distinctive of the mixed bush,
are never heard beneath the outrageous
canopy which excludes the radiant south.
ern sun. The kauri reigns supreme in
its own domain. Nor is there the en-
chanting diversity Of ordinary bush
the palms and the tree ferns, the shrubs
and the prodigal wealth Of beautiful
parasites whose bewilderiug variety is
unrivaled even in the torrid zone.
With the exception of a living carpet
of delicate maidenhair, which attains a
height of from five to six feet, and OF
ropes Of ereeper ferns which swing from
tree To tree like fairies in the castle Of q
giant, the forest is altogether bare OF
underground. In the woods Of recent
growth, however, vegetation is more
! luxuriaut The long tendrils of the
+ clematis and rata connect trunk with
trunk in garlands of white and scarlet
bloom, and at their base flourishes al
infinite variety Of ferns, while here anC
? there graceful tree fern rears its silyery
. lined crown.
1t is curious sight 10 English eyes L
4 see group Of young kauris standing
I dark. tall and erect against the pal,
e blue and gold of the sky and the lighte
greens of the background of the forest
Q Like all the species, the dome is out o
all proportion to the height. But thei
doom has been spoken. The ak of TN
{ lumberman and tho whirr of the saw
Y mill resound in the land and the eartl
: quiyers with the shock of falling pa
\ triarchs. With the rccklessness Of tin
! spendthrift the New Zealander is spend
+ ing his heritage. and before anothe
fifty years have passed away this nobl
4 tree will be as extinct as the moa.
! London Globe.