312 SYLVAN WINTER. 



Running up as straight as arrows to the height 

 of some of the loftiest buildings in the world, 

 these vegetable monsters are, we shall see, no 

 less remarkable for the prodigious girth of their 

 trunks. There are trees in this grove over 300 

 feet high, and one prostrate trunk measures 

 more than 400 feet. Let us take the last 

 mentioned. It has been called the " Father of 

 the Forest," and measures 430 feet in length, 

 that is, it is 102 feet higher than is the top of 

 St. Paul's Cathedral above the ground, or but 

 thirty-eight feet lower than the top of the spire 

 of Strasbourg Minster. This veteran measures 

 110 feet in circumference at the base, and the 

 trunk runs for 210 feet before the first branch is 

 thrown out. Three hundred feet up the trunk 

 there occurs a break, owing to the tree having 

 come into collision with another as it fell to the 

 ground. The girth of the trunk at this point 

 300 feet from the roots is eighteen feet. The 

 trunk is mostly hollow, for there is a tunnel 

 inside extending for 200 feet, and along thirty- 

 five feet of this there is height and room enough 

 to ride about on horseback, right inside the tree. 



