Proceedings. 165 



dipping to north-east, and passing upwards into a bluish and 

 siliceous slaty rock — into breccia — grit-stone — and finally into sand- 

 stone. The situation of the out-crop is about 20 or 21 miles from 

 Oatlands, in a direction nearly E.S.E. along the usual cart-track, 

 upon Mr. Stanfield's property. 



Mr. Milligan read the following note from the Rev. T. J. Ewing, 

 of New Town, on the occurrence of some unprecedentedly large 

 specimens of the Swamp Gum {Eucalyptus Sp.) — 



" New Town Parsonage, \9th March, 1849. 

 "My Dear Sir, — I went last week to see a very large tree, or rather two 

 very large ones, that I had heard of since 1841, but which were not re-discovered 

 ' until Monday last. As they are two of the largest — if not the largest— trees 

 ever measured, I have determined to send you an account of them, in order 

 that a record may be preserved in any future publication of the Iloyil Society. 

 Tiiey are witiiin three quarters of a mile of each other, on a small stream,- 

 tributary to (lie Nartl)-west Bay River, pretty far up on the ridge vvhicii 

 separates its waters from those of Brown's River. They are easily reached 

 from the Huon foot-path, and are in a beautiful vale of sassafras and tree- 

 ferns, and not in an inaccessible gully like most of our gigantic trees. 1 have 

 never before seen the tree-ferns growing in such luxuriance, bending over the 

 stream like enormous cornucopias, 'i'he fire has never reached them, as they 

 and the forest around them plainly show; and every here and tliere you are 

 puzzled on seeing a sassafras tree with a root on either side,— one in particular 

 forming a natural arch, underneath which you can walk. And it was soma 

 lime before I could tell how it was ever possible for the tree to have grown 

 there, until on looking further I perceived that the sassafras must have 

 originally sprung from seed lodged in the bark of some swamp gum that had 

 fallen across the brook ; and, as it grew, it gradually sent out roots along the 

 trunk until they met terra firma. The trunk having in the course of ages 

 decayed, has left the sassafras tree in the odd position in which we now see 

 it. I say so much before I give you the measurement. 1 am sure the 

 whole scene would amply repay you fur the trouble of a ride; in addi- 

 tion to the giants below, there are, I feel confident, within a mile, at least 

 a hundred trees of 40 feet in circumference. One, about forty yards from the 

 biggest, was 60 feet at four feet from the ground, and at a hundred and thirty 

 must have been fully 40 feet in circumference; it was without buttresses, but 

 went up one solid massive column, without the least symptom of decay. A 

 silver wattle was 120 feet high, and 6 feet round. In fact, we named it the 

 Vale of Giants, for puny indeed did men appear alongside these vegetable 

 wonders. The largest we measured was, at three feet from the ground, 102 

 feel in circumference, and at the ground 130 feet. We had no means of 

 estimating its height, so dense was the neighbouring forest, — above which, 

 however, it towered in majestic grandeur. This noble swamp gum is still 

 growing, and shows no signs of decay ; it should be held sacred as the largest 

 growing tree. The largest oak on record is the Cowthorpe, in Yorkshire, 

 which is 48feetin circumference at three feet from the ground. Some hollow 

 pollard oaks are larger, such as tlie Winfurthing, in Norfolk, which is 70 feet 

 at the ground. The second tree, also a swamp gum, is prostrate. It measures, 



