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Show 144 WESTERN WILDS. then a large portion is gone sawn out in foot sections and trans-ported Eastward. The " Father of the Forest/' largest of all the trees, is also prostrate and slightly buried in the ground, having evidently fallen many years before the grove was discovered ( 1852). Its circumference at the base is 110 feet; thence it is 200 feet to the first branch, the tree hollow all that distance, and through this tube I can easily walk erect. Unlike the other, it was evidently much de-cayed, and was broken by its fall, besides breaking down several smaller trees with it. By the stumps of these it is known to have been at least 420 feet in height, and may have been considerably more. Near its base is a never- failing spring of clear, cold water. " The Mother of the Forest," so named from two round protuber-ances on one side, is the largest tree now standing. The bark has been removed to the height of 116 feet, but without it the tree is 84 feet in circumferance at the base. Twenty feet from the base it measures round 69 feet, and thus on, decreasing with elegant regu-larity to the height of 321 feet, making this the most symmetrical of : all the larger trees. And for this reason its vastness is seldom appre-ciated at first view. In such fine harmony, the sense of immensity is lost. It is not until one has gone around the tree many times, and viewed it from different points, that he comprehends its grandeur. The bark was from ten to twenty- four inches thick, bulging out-wardly in a succession of ellipsoids around the trunk ; it resembles a mass of velvety red fibers, and blocks of it are in use all over the country as memorial pin- cushions. A practical lumberman of our party estimated that this tree contained at least 520,000 feet of sound inch lumber. Next are the " Husband and Wife," a noble pair of saplings, each 60 feet around the base, and 250 feet in height, growing near and bending lovingly toward each other till their upper branches are min-gled in a dense wooden and leafy mass a canopy sufficient to shade 5,000 persons! Near by is the " Burnt Tree," prostrate and hollow, into which one can ride on horseback for sixty feet. Across the roots it measures 39 feet, and from all indications its height must have been over 300 feet. The " Horseback Ride" is also hollow its entire length; in the narrowest part the interior is twelve feet wide, and can be traversed from end to end. " Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a hollow stump in which twenty- five persons can be comfortably seated ; while near by the " Three Sisters " stand side by side in graceful amplitude, each twenty feet thick and 200 feet high, of exact proportions and equidistant from base to crown. |