CH. VII.] GROWTH OF OTHER TREES. 227 
of the branches prevents a fair measurement from 
being taken higher up—was on the 4th of February, 
1852, fourteen feet three inches, and on the 17th 
of February, 1857, fifteen feet one inch. This tree 
two old men about the place assured me they 
remembered when recently planted, and tied to a 
stick for support, their evidence being given quite 
independently of each other, and the only dis- 
crepancy between them being as to the colour 
of the stick, one saying it was green, and the 
other blue. They are now dead, but their ages, 
if still living, would have been about eighty-five 
and ninety-seven—the elder of the two not having 
come to reside in the neighbourhood until he 
was twenty-one. J think then from these data 
we may safely draw the conclusion that the tree 
in question cannot be much above eighty years 
old. According to its present rate of growth, it 
would be about ninety, but as it probably grew 
more rapidly when younger, this calculation would 
seem to point as nearly as possible to the same 
result. In the size of some large Scotch firs 
which are standing near this Cedar, these men told 
me they could detect no difference. 
The comparative rate of growth of some other 
trees, which I measured at the same time, may 
: 92 
