150 BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



in visiting Cape Verd in the year 1748, he was 

 struck by the venerable appearance of a tree 50 

 feet in circumference. He recollected having 

 read in some old voyages an account of an in- 

 scription made in a tree thus situated. No 

 traces of such an inscription remained, but the 

 position of the tree having been accurately de- 

 scribed, Adamson was induced to search for it 

 by cutting into the tree, when to his great satis- 

 faction, he discovered the inscription entire, 

 under no less a covering than three hundred 

 layers of wood. 



A somewhat similar story is related of Daniel 

 Boone, the first settler of Kentucky. 



