Monster Trees.

Southern Cross, Volume 9, Issue 23, 7 September 1901, Page 2

Monster Trees.

When the Duke of York was in Tasmania he was treated to a woodchopping contest. Wood-chopping contests are popular in Tasmania, and one reason is—they have the wood. When on one occasion, a Yankee in England wanted to say something of that country, he said this —‘ How in tarnation do you manage to hunt here F Aren’t you afraid of falling over the edges P’ When that gentleman strikes Tasmania and sees some of the trees, he may say something of the same complexion —‘ How do you manage to grow such trees here—big in girth as real Californians F I didn’t think there was the earth.’ The accompanying photo indicates the smartness of such a remark, without any truth 3 as it is not the quantity of earth, but the quality. When the tree of which this is the slump was in full swing in one of the Southern breezes, it stood —well, as high as a mountain. How that it is a mere stump it is over a hundred feet in diameter, and contains enough firewood to supply a township. The axe-men of Tasmania don’t work on these trees, of coarse —they couldn’t ; but they work on trees which any but Tasmanian and Californian axe-men would shrink from, and this and their speed established their fame. As everyone knows, the Tasmanian annual chopping match is a big Australian happening, and contestants go to it from all the southern woodlands.