EUCALYPTUS TREES. 131 



eighty-one feet, its lower diameter to be twenty-six 

 feet, and at the height of three hundred feet its diam- 

 eter six feet. Suppose only half the available .wood 

 was cut into planks of twelve inches width, we would 

 get, in the terms of the timber trade, four hundred 

 and twenty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty 

 superficial feet at one inch thickness, sufficient to cover 

 nine and three fourths acres. The same bulk of wood 

 cui into railway-sleepers, six feet by six inches by 

 eight inches, would yield in number seventeen thou- 

 sand seven hundred and eighty. Not less than a 

 length of twenty-three miles of three-rail fencing, 

 including the necessary posts, could be constructed. 

 It would require a ship of about one thousand tonnage 

 to convey the timber and additional firewood of half 

 the tree ; and six hundred and sixty-six drayloads at 

 one and one half tons would thus be formed to remove 

 half the wood. The essential oil obtainable from the 

 foliage of the whole tree may be estimated at thirty- 

 one pounds ; the charcoal, suppose there was no loss 

 of wood, seventeen thousand nine hundred and fifty 

 bushels ; the crude vinegar, two hundred and twenty- 

 seven thousand two hundred and sixty-nine gallons ; 

 the wood-tar, thirty-one thousand one hundred and 

 fifty gallons ; the potash, two tons eleven hundred 

 weight. But how many centuries elapsed before un- 

 disturbed nature could build up by the subtle process- 

 es of vitality these huge and wondrous structures ! 



Some feelings of veneration and reverence should 

 also be evinced toward the native vegetation, where 

 it displays its rarest and grandest forms. It is la- 

 mentable that in all Australia scarcely a single spot 



