100 



measured by him] , fourteen inches. The ordinary esti- 

 mate of the age of a tree of this kind is about an inch of 

 circumference for a year, and upon this basis, this elm 

 must be over 200 years of age. Mr. Upham also spoke 

 of the elm tree at Mrs. Isaac Hale's in Boxford, which six 

 feet up measured in circumference 12 feet 8 inches, and 

 the spread 107 feet 6 inches in diameter, and is probably 

 not surpassed in general beauty and symmetry by any in 

 the county. He also alluded to other trees and exhibited 

 drawings of several. 



Some further remarks upon large trees were made by 

 Mr. John Robinson, Rev. William S. Coggin and others. 



Rev. E. C. BOLLES, of Salem, had made no collections, 

 and was consequently not prepared to offer anything in 

 his own particular department of scientific investigation. 

 He, however, had something to say growing out of the 

 thought that often in the most limited things in nature are 

 revealed the wonders of a world, and about specialty in 

 science with particular reference to enforcing the idea 

 that there is not a person in any of these towns who is 

 not capable of contributing something to the world's store 

 of knowledge. 



ANCILL DORMAN, Esq., one of the selectmen, on being 

 called upon to say something pertaining to the history of 

 the town, said the original settlement dated back as far as 

 1650. In 1680 there were twenty or thirty families. It 

 was incorporated in 1685, the land being previously apart 

 of Rowley, the early settlers coming from Topsfield and a 

 part from Ipswich. At the time of the Revolution there 

 were about 1000 inhabitants, and this is about the present 

 population. The church in this parish was founded in 

 1702 ; and that in the west parish in 1736. 



