49 
" Suddenly the forest opened and we passed some wood-cutters' huts, 
which were standing upon a wide, already cleared space. Children and 
dogs were jumping around us and the contrast was all the greater as 
scarcely a thousand steps away that high majestic forest was beckoning 
across to us. On we went up an incline and again we were surrounded by 
that awful, solemn silence, and high above us, scarcely visible to our sight, 
rustled the tops of the trees. Now and then the sound of the woodman's 
axe broke upon our ear; many a slender lofty giant had already fallen to 
sacrifice its splendid, easily and straight-splitting wood for useful purposes, 
and the remnants were hindering our progress. Here on this mountain 
slope the trees towered up to a marvellous height, and the slender tree-ferns 
whose huge, green fronds waved in the winds, were standing beneath 
them like playing grandchildren. 
" "We halted and seated ourselves upon some remnants of a former giant 
whose life and verdure already belonged to the past. A dear friend of 
mine, the Photographer Charles Walter, was our guide. This man, a 
thorough German artist, equipped with perseverance and energy, likes 
everywhere to steal upon nature and to search out her secrets and 
sanctuaries in order to preserve for the present generation and for 
posterity the beauty and grandeur of the wilderness. He had already from 
this position conjured these forest giants upon his plates, and t that by 
taking their height in three divisions, so that three pictures fitting closely 
one above the other reproduce a complete and faithful picture of these 
gigantic trees. 
" Our glances sped up the straight smooth stems often to a height of 200 
feet and more before the eye could perceive the first branch projecting 
from the stem. A tree felled in these mountains (Daudenong ranges) 
measured from the base to the first branch 295 feet, and thence another 70 
feet ; the continuation and the crown were missing, they had doubtless 
been used or burned. The entire length of this tree to the point where it 
was broken off amounted therefore to 365 feet. Imagine then the con- 
tinuation to the slender summit. A still larger tree, found near Berwick, 
had a circumference of 81 feet at 4 feet from the ground, the first section 
was 26 feet in diameter, and at a length of 300 feet it still had a diameter 
of 6 feet. Another tree felled on the 'Black Spur' measured full 480 feet 
in length. 
" And under such giants we tarried and our eyes grew dizzy in searching 
for their waving crowns ; crowns which could overshadow the highest archi- 
tectural achievements of the earth, the Pyramid of Cheops and the Minster of 
