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up. The ride through fields and orchards and cattle pastures interesting as showing sources of wealth sustaining Melbourne. No boulders glacial. Bed rock metamorphic slates or coarse granite. From Healsville to Black’s Spur Hermitage charming all the way, nearly through Government land. Soon reach the unchanged forest. The view in every direction from Hermitage is of boundless extention of trees over hill and dale like the Appalachian. December 26th Slept well. Charming morning, calm, cool, bright, glorious sunshine, hushed, peaceful, vast woods. Last evening thunder storm and after a heavy shower the sun shone on the wet leaves, making delightful brightness and the cooled air full of fresh ozone delicious. How the tree ferns enjoyed it! After breakfast Mr. Lintd assembled a party and conducted us through the best of the great forest hereabouts. Mostly 2 species of Eucalyptus, stringy bark and netted bark and hybrids, fagus with leaves like Andromeda, 5 foot diameter. Fine trees, Acacia, Blackwood, tall straight boles, beautifully reticulated bark. Sassafras, pepper tree, etc. The great trees Eucalyptus amygdaloidae are about 200 feet high average, a few 250, a very few 20 or 30 feet taller. Mr. Lintd who says he has been 40 years in “The Bush” does not believe a single tree on the continent exceeds 300 feet in height. The rings are indistinct on large trees. The few I was able to count showed that even the very large trees are not very old, say, 200 years or 300. (?)
Date Original
November 1903
Source
Original journal dimensions: 11 x 16.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel29Journal12P48-49.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
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Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
