344 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



silicious material, surrounded by a sloping ridge of sienitic rock, which in 

 some places projects above the soil. The basin is reeking with moisture, 

 and in the lowest places the water is standing, and some of the largest 

 trees dip their roots into the pools or water- runs. The trees of very large 

 dimensions number considerably more than 100. Mr. Blake measured 

 one 94 feet in circumference at the root, the side of which had been part- 

 ly burned by contact with another tree, the head of which had fallen 

 against it. The latter can. be measured 450 feet from its head to its root. 

 A large portion of this fallen monster is still to be seen and examined ; 

 and by the measurement of Mr. Lapham, the proprietor of the place, it is 

 said to be 10 feet in diameter at 350 feet from its uptorn root. In falling 

 it had prostrated another large tree in its corse, and pressed out the earth 

 beneath itself so as to be embedded a number of feet into the ground. Its 

 diameter across its root is 40 feet. A man is nothing in comparison of 

 dimensions while walking on it or standing near its side. This to me 

 was the greatest wonder of the forest. The tree which it prostrated in fall- 

 ing has been burned hollow, and is so large, a gentleman who accompanied 

 us from Murphy's informed us, that, when he first visited the place two 

 years ago, he rode through it on horseback for 200 feet, without stooping 

 but at one spot as he entered at. the root. "We all walked many scores of 

 feet through it, but a large piece of its side has fallen in near the head. 

 But there are many standing whose magnitude absolutely oppresses the 

 mind with awe. In one place, three of these gigantic objects grow side 

 by side, as if planted with spedal reference to their present appearance. 

 Another, so monstrous as to absolutely compel you to walk around it, and 

 even linger, is divided at from 50 to 100 feet from the ground into three of 

 these straight mamiaoth trunks, towering over 300 feet into the sky. 

 There are others, whose proportions are as delicate, symmetrical, clean and 

 straight as small spruces, that rise 350- feet from the ground. In one spot 

 a huge knot of some ancient prostrate giant is visible above the soil, where 

 it fell ages ago, and the earth has accumulated so as nearly to obliterate all 

 traces of its foimer existence. The wood of this tree, I am told by Mr. 

 Lapham, is remarkable for its slow decay. AY hen first cut down its fibre 

 is white, but it soon becomes reddish, and long exposure makes it as dark 

 as mahogany ; it is soft, and resembles in some respects pine and cedar. 

 Its bark, however, is much unlike these trees ; nearest the ground it is 

 prodigiously thick, fibrous, and when pressed on has a peculiar feeling of 

 elasticity. In some places it is 18 inches thick, and resembles a mass of 

 cocoa-nut husks thickly matted and pressed together, only the fibrous ma- 

 terial is exceedingly fine, and altogether unlike the husk of the cocoa-nut. 

 This bark is fissured irregularly with numerous identations, which give 

 it the appearance of great inequality and roughness. A hundred and fifty 

 feet from the ground it is only about two inches thick on the living tree, 

 which is now beiiig stripped of its bark for transportation from the country. 

 "The cone of this tree is small and compact, and nearly regularly oval ; 

 and although the tree itself is the largest of the conifcra, its fruit is as 



