CH. VII.] GROWTH OF OTHER TREES. 227 



of the branches prevents a fair measurement from 

 being taken higher up was on the 4th of February, 

 1852, fourteen feet three inches, and on the 17th 

 of February, 1857, fifteen feet one inch. This tree 

 two old men about the place assured me they 

 remembered when recently planted, and tied to a 

 stick for support, their evidence being given quite 

 independently of each other, and the only dis- 

 crepancy between them being as to the colour 

 of the stick, one saying it was green, and the 

 other blue. They are now dead, but their ages, 

 if still living, would have been about eighty-five 

 and ninety-seven the elder of the two not having 

 come to reside in the neighbourhood until he 

 was twenty-one. I think then from these data 

 we may safely draw the conclusion that the tree 

 in question cannot be much above eighty years 

 old. According to its present rate of growth, it 

 would be about ninety, but as it probably grew 

 more rapidly when younger, this calculation would 

 seem to point as nearly as possible to the same 

 result. In the size of some large Scotch firs 

 which are standing near this Cedar, these men told 

 me they could detect no difference. 



The comparative rate of growth of some other 

 trees, which I measured at the same time, may 



Q2 



