A VISIT TO THE BIG TKEES. 303 



of the forest elsewhere, seemed mere dwarfs beside 

 those Wellingtonias ; and as we walked about, pigmy 

 and insignificant, we half expected to see the strange 

 forms of extinct giants of the animal world, the mam- 

 moth or the mastodon of ages still more remote, come 

 crashing through the timber, or the pterodactyl wing- 

 ing its way amongst the colossal vegetation. There 

 stood the " Mother of the Forest," withered and bare, 

 her full height 327 feet, her girth 78 feet without the 

 bark, for this had been removed from 116 feet of the 

 lower portion of the trunk, and the scaffolding erected 

 for the purpose still stood round the tree. This outer 

 shell, thus removed, is now put up, we believe, in 

 the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Thus the two 

 finest trees growing when the forest was first dis- 

 covered have both been wantonly destroyed for the 

 gratification of curiosity-lovers. There is, however, 

 a still greater than these, decayed and fallen a 

 stupendous ruin lying half-buried in the ground. It 

 appears to have been destroyed by the fire which has 

 evidently devastated the grove years ago, for many of 

 the standing trees are partially charred, and this one 

 has been burnt into a hollow shell. At the base its 

 girth is 112 feet, and we walked inside the tunnel 

 through the trunk for 200 feet with our hats on. 

 Great must have been the fall of the "Father of the 

 Forest," and numerous large trees have been over- 

 thrown or broken off by it when it crashed to the 

 ground. 300 feet from the root it snapped in two, 



