OF FOREST-TREES. 



195 



force of any edged tool, being of a consisture so hard : but even this, CHAP. Iir. 

 and all we have hitherto produced, is nothing to what I find mentioned 

 in the late Chinese History, (as it is set forth upon occasion of the Dutch 

 embassy,) where they tell us of a certain tree called Ciennich, (or the tree 

 of a thousand years,) in the province of Suchu, near the city of Kien, 

 which is so prodigiously large, as to shroud two hundi'ed sheep under 

 one only branch of it, without being so much as perceived by those who 

 approach it. And to conclude with yet a greater wonder, of another in 

 the province of Cheldang, whose amplitude is so stupendously vast, as 

 fourscore persons can hardly embrace. These gigantic trees the Chinese 

 timber-merchants transport on floats, upon which they build huts and 

 little cottages, where they live with their families, floating many 

 thousand miles tiU aU be sold, as Le Compte tells us. In the mean time, 

 we must not omit the strange and incredible bulk of some Oaks standing 

 lately in Westphalia, whereof one served both for a castle and fort ; and 

 another there, which contained in height one hundred and thirty feet, 

 and, as some report, thirty feet diameter ; also another which yielded one 

 hundred wain load. I have read of a table of Walnut-tree, to be seen 

 at St. Nicholas's, in Lorrain, which held twenty-five feet broad, all of a 

 piece, and of competent length and thickness, rarely flecked and watered ; 

 Scamozzi, the architect, reports he saw it. Such a monster that might 

 be, under which the emperor Frederick III. held his magnificent feast 

 in 1472. We will now endeavour to give a taste of more fresh observa- 

 tions, and to compare our modern timber with the ancient, and that not 



situation for twenty years ; but he did not continue there the whole year, for his vow 

 obliged him to lie, during the four cold months, up to his neck in the waters of the river 

 Ganges, p. 131. Milton represents our first parents as making use of the leaves of this 

 tree, as soon as they became conscious of shame : 



The Fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renown'd ; 

 But such as at this day to Indians known 

 In Malabar, or Decan, spreads her arms. 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade 



High over-arch' d, and echoing walks between. paradise lost. 



