50 
TALL  TREES  IN  AUSTRALIA. 
D.  Boyle  measured  a  fallen  tree  of  Eucalyptus  amygdalina,  in  the 
deep  recesses  of  Dandenong,  and  obtained  for  it  the  length  of 
420  feet,  with  proportions  of  width,  indicated  in  a  design  of  a 
monumental  structure  placed  in  the  exhibition  ;  while  Mr.  G. 
Klein  took  the  measurement  of  a  eucalyptus  on  the  Black  Spur, 
ten  miles  distant  from  Healsville,  480  feet  high  !  Mr.  E.  B. 
Hayne  obtained,  at  Dandenong,  as  measurements  of  height  of  a 
tree  of  Eucalyptus  amygdalina  :  Length  of  stem  from  the  base 
to  the  first  branch,  295  feet ;  diameter  of  the  stem  at  the  first 
branch,  4  feet ;  length  of  stem  from  first  branch  to  where  its  top 
portion  was  broken  olf,  90  feet ;  diameter  of  the  stem  where 
broken  off,  3  feet ;  total  length  of  stem  up  to  place  of  fracture, 
365  feet ;  girth  of  stem  three  feet  from  the  surface,  41  feet.  A 
still  thicker  tree  measured,  three  feet  from  the  base,  53  feet  in 
circumference.  Mr.  George  W.  Robinson  ascertained,  in  the 
back-ranges  of  Berwick,  the  circumference  of  a  tree  of  Eucalyp- 
tus amygdalina  to  be  81  feet  at  a  distance  of  four  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  supposes  this  eucalypt,  towards  the  sources  of  the 
Yarra  and  Latrobe  rivers,  to  attain  a  height  of  half  a  thousand 
feet.  The  same  gentleman  found  Fagus  Cunninghami  to  gain  a 
height  of  200  feet,  and  a  circumference  of  23  feet. 
"  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that,  in  these  isolated  inquiries,  chance 
has  led  to  the  really  highest  trees,  which  the  most  secluded  and 
the  least  accessible  spots  may  still  conceal.  It  seems,  however, 
almost  beyond  dispute,  that  the  trees  of  Australia  rival  in  length, 
though  evidently  not  in  thickness,  even  the  renowned  forest- 
giants  of  California,  Sequoia  WelUngtonia,  the  highest  of  which, 
as  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  rise,  in  their  favorite  haunts  at  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  to  about  450  feet.  Still,  one  of  the  mammoth 
trees  measured,  it  is  said,  at  an  estimated  height  of  300  feet,  18 
feet  in  diameter !  Thus  to  Victorian  trees,  for  elevation,  the 
palm  must,  apparently,  be  conceded.  A  standard  of  comparison 
we  possess  in  the  spire  of  the  Munster  of  Strasburg,  the  highest 
of  any  cathedral  of  the  globe,  which  sends  its  lofty  pinnacle  to 
the  height  of  466  feet,  or  in  the  great  pyramid  of  Cheops,  480 
feet  high,  which,  if  raised  in  our  ranges,  would  be  overshadowed, 
probably,  by  Eucalyptus  trees. 
"  The  enormous  height  attained  by  not  isolated,  but  vast  masses 
