The Oaks. 



CHAPTER IX. 



LONG-LIVED TREES AND GIANT TKEES. 



1. Longevity of Trees. 



OF all the objects with which nature has clothed the 

 earth, nothing gives us a clearer idea of the age 

 of our globe than those trees whose branches have 

 sheltered generation after generation for thousands of 

 years. There is something mysterious and fascinating 

 in the form of an immense, great tree. For our own 

 part we have rarely witnessed the new life of spring, 

 clothing, year after year, a tree with its splendid, ever- 

 new apparel of leaves, without being deeply impress- 

 ed and almost overwhelmed with the comparative 

 brevity of human life. The monuments of man live 



