196 LIFE OF A TREE. 
constructed by the hands of man, but by the 
Deity himself, as if to awe the mind of the 
spectator with a holy dread of His own presence. 
Never before had I beheld such enormous trunks, 
—they looked more like living rocks than trees ; 
for it was only on the pinnacle of their bare and 
naked bark that foliage could be discovered, and 
that at such a distance from the eye that the 
forms of the leaves could not be made out, Fif- 
teen Indians with outstretched arms could only 
just embrace one of them. At the bottom they 
were eighty-four feet in circumference, and sixty 
feet where the boles became cylindrical.” By 
counting the concentric rings of such parts as 
were accessible, he arrived at the conclusion that 
they were of the age of Homer, and three hundred 
and thirty-two years old in the days of Pytha- 
goras. One of his estimates reduced their age to 
two thousand and fifty-two years, while another 
carried it up to four thousand one hundred and 
four; from which he argues that the trees can- 
not but date far beyond the time of our Saviour. 
Their colossal appearance is well shewn in the 
cut, a small portion of the lower part of the 
trunk only being represented. 
