The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1892-04-30
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The knuzi pine h undisputed sovereign
Of the Australasian forest. No other
tree can approach It In grandeur Of pro-
portion or in impressiveness when, AZ
one OF q clan, it holds as its own stretches
Of country hundreds Of mills in extent.
Perhaps the sight which the kauri grove
presents to the eye is unequaled in the
whole realm of nature. AS the traveller
gazes 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 of sound, awakens feel
ing of awe.
Mile upon mile they stretch into dis
lance, in 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 monotony 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 of maturity when Hannibal
crossed the Alps, and Rome entered on
her victorious career. They have seen
the splendid dawn of adj the great en-
pires of the world, and seen them set in
gloom, when the canker of decay had
Slapped 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 flora Of another order of things.
At n" distant date it also, like the Ia
tives. the birds, the grasses, will have
passed into the 1neasureless oblivion
from whence it came. In the presence
of this venerable giant pine of Maori
land. the grandest representative of a
primitive age, the colonial, a creature Of
yesterday, feels like pig1ny as he gazes
on the solemn files on every side. AS
<,f
and painful newneSs, he is possessed
only with the passion Of destruction.
The weirdness inseparable from the
very nature of kauri forest is intensi-
fed by the total absence of animal life.
The contented droning of insects, the
hmm Of the bee, the glad singing of
birds. SO distinctive of the mixed bush,
are never heard beneath the outrageous
canopy which excludes the radiant south
ern snn. The kauri reigns supreme i'll
its own domain. Nor is there the ell
chanting diversity of ordinary bush
the palms and the tree ferns, the shrubs
and the prodigal wealth OF beautiful
parasites whose bewildering 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 creeper ferns which swing from
tret. to- tree like fairies in the castle of
giant. the forest is altogether bare of
underground. In the woods Of recent
growth. however, vegetation is more
luxlriant. The long tendrils of the
,:lelnatis and rata connect trunk with
Trunk in garlands OF white and scarlet
bloom, and at their base fourishes ali
infinite variety of ferns. while here and
there graceful tree fern re;4rs its silvery
lined crown.
1t is curious sight to English eyes to
see d group of young kauris standing
dark, tall and erect against the pale
blue and gold of the sky and the lighter
green's of the background of the forest.
Like all the species. the dome is ont Of
all proportion to the height. But their
doom has been spoken. The AK of the
lumberlnan and the whirr Of the saw
mill resound in the land and the earth
Quivers with the shock of falling pa
triarchs. With the recklessness of the
spendthrift the New Zealander is spend
ing his heritage, and before another
fifty years have passed away this noble
tree will be as extinct as the moa.-
London Globe.