GIANTS. 347 



feet in diameter at three hundred and fifty feet from 

 its upturned root."i 



Dr. Berthold Seemann,- a most trustworthy ob- 

 server, has given a detailed account of some of the 

 most remarkable of the sequoias, in which the 

 " Hercules " is named as three hundred and twenty- 

 five feet high, and ninety-seven in circumference at 

 the base. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " claims to be three 

 hundred feet high, and seventy-five feet in cir- 

 cumference. The " big tree," which was felled, was 

 ninety-six feet in circumference at the base, and 

 solid throughout. This was effected by boring holes 

 with augers, and then connecting them by means of 

 an axe. Twenty-five men were thus occupied for 

 five days. When this was done, it was only by 

 applying a wedge and strong leverage, favoured by 

 a heavy breeze, that the overthrow was accom- 

 plished ; stones and earth being cast up with such 

 force that these records of the fall may be seen on 

 surrounding trees, to the height of nearly a hundred 

 feet. Although we have sought, and enquired dili- 

 gently, we do not find reliable grounds for rejecting 

 Sereno Watson's maximum height of three hundred 

 and twenty-five feet. 



The gigantic trees of Australia are gum trees, a 



' Hookci-'s '' Kew Garden Miscellany," vol. xii. (1S55), p. 27. 

 - Dr. B. Seemann, "Ann. Nat. Hist.," March, 1859. 



