170 H. C. RUSSELL. 



prove that the growth of gum trees is very rapid. In 1825-6 Sir 

 Thomas Mitchell was engaged in a Trigonometrical survey of the 

 colony, and for that reason cleared the tops of a number of con- 

 spicuous hills. His plan was to cut down all the trees on the 

 hill except one selected as a land mark, hence it was, that such 

 hills came to be called One Tree Hills. In 1876 I visited Mount 

 Victoria, which was one of the hills so cleared by Sir Thomas 

 Mitchell, and found it entirely covered by gum trees fifteen to 

 twenty inches in diameter. The soil is poor only a slight covering 

 to solid sandstone rocks, but the climate is good, rain often falling 

 there, the elevation is about 3,500 feet ; at the same rate o£ 

 increase these trees would be two feet in diameter in sixty years, 

 nearly three times as long as those on the margin of Lake George 

 take to arrive at the same size. 



The question whether the rate of increase is maintained as the 

 trees grew old is & very interesting one upon which I have little 

 or no data ; of course trees situated on highlands would be affected 

 by the seasons, but on the shore of Lake George there would 

 always be plenty of moisture within reach of the roots, and the 

 trees should grow steadily. The short period over which my 

 measures have been carried on, render the results in this respect 

 of little value, but the result may be taken for what it is worth ; 

 for the seventeen months following my first measure in 1885 the 

 tree gained 0*31 inch in circumference each month, and for the 

 sixty-four months following, that is from July 1886 to November 

 10th 1891, the tree has gained 0*39 inch in circumference each 

 month, so that it seems to grow rather faster as it gets older. 



As to the age of the tree measured at Lake George, it was 

 growing about four and a half or five feet within the high water 

 mark of the great flood of 1874 within which all the trees were 

 killed, the residents when appealed to said the four trees could 

 not be more than seven or eight years old, which agrees with 

 probabilities as to their age, for they would not spring up until a 

 year or two after the water retired, and it did not leave the spot 

 they grow on until 1875, ten years before I was there. Taking 



