GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF TREES. 41 



and especially in Finmark, these trees have less height, 

 but they present a considerable girth. 



' In Drangedal, in the bailiwick of Bamble, 59 6' N., 

 there has been measured a fir 31 metres, 103 feet in 

 height, and 0*76 metre, 66 inches, in diameter, at 21 

 metres, 70 feet, from the ground. In 1864, there was 

 felled in Hurdal, 60 24' N., at an altitude of 350 metres, 

 a fir having a height of 34 metres, 103 feet, and at 1 

 metre- from the ground a diameter of 1*07 metre, 47 

 inches. There may be counted in it 170 concentric 

 rings ; and it was estimated that it must have been from 

 175 to 180 years old. In Selbo, 63 15' N., there was 

 felled in 1877 a fir having a height of 33 metres, and a 

 diameter of 1 metre, 40 inches, at 1 metre from the 

 ground. 



' The time required by the fir and the pine to attain 

 the dimensions of building timber, and timber for export, 

 naturally varies much, according to the conditions of 

 growth in which they find themselves. In Southern 

 Norway it may be reckoned that a pine of from 100 to 150 

 years' growth may furnish trees of 5 metres or 17 feet, and 

 of 33 centimetres or 13 inches diameter at the small end. 

 In the forests of Vinger and Odal, 60 to 61 N., in the 

 valley of the Glommen, their concentric rings measured 1 

 centimetre, nearly half-inch ; in the northern part of the 

 valley of Osterdal, on the other hand, it requires from 4 to 

 6 to measure 1 centimetre ; the rings of the fir being less 

 compressed from 2 to 4 often measure I centimetre. In 

 young trees the augmentation of girth as elsewhere 

 diminishes continuously with age/ 



In a paper transmitted under date of September 21, 

 1874, to the Department of State at Washington, General 

 Andrews, Minister from the United States to Sweden, 

 draws attention to the fact that a thing may be reckoned 

 as worth what under favourable circumstances, it takes to 

 produce it, and reports : Mr. Samson, a highly intelligent 

 Norwegian gentleman, who has made a large fortune in 



