BELFAST MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. 30.]

JANUARY 31, 1811.

COMMUNICATIONS ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

[Vol. 6.

For the Belfast Monthly Magazine. torily, that Ireland is capable of producing large timber. In the year 1793, there was cut down on the estate of Wm. Hoey, esq. at Dunganstown, three chesnuts, one of which measured 16 feet 6 inches, another 15 feet, and a third 14 feet 3 inches in girt; the length of one was 24 feet, and the other 36. At Portmore Park, on the shore of Lough Neagh, in the county of Antrim, there was an oak growing within the memory of some persons yet alive, that may stand in comparison with the before-mentioned celebrated trees of England. The trunk of this tree was 42 feet girt, and 25 feet long to the first branch, one of the branches made into an Axletree for a bleach-mill, sold at

ON IRISH TIMBERJ

THE
HE traveller who has had an op-
portunity of viewing the produc-
tions of nature in various regions,
must be struck with the contrast be
tween the wonderful luxuriance of
Tropical vegetation, and that which
takes place after passing the bounda-
ries of the temperate zones. Adamn
son found on the banks of the Sene-
gal, several trees from 65 to 78 feet
in circumference, and braving the
tremendous convulsions of a thousand
years; the great chesnut of Mount
Etna, whose trunk of 204 feet in
circumference, and ample shade,
seems placed on the confines of ice
and flame, in order to exhibit the
various powers of nature. To these
we may oppose the dwarf willow,
with a stem of only two or three in-
ches the only woody species of plant
hitherto discovered in the inhospi-
table regions of Spitzbergen.

In England a sweet chesnut has grown in Hertfordshire, to 42 feet in circumference, and another at Trotworth, in Glocestershire to 44 feet 4 inches. The Cowthrope oak, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, to 48 feet; Boddington oak, in the vale of Glocester, to 42 feet, and another at Broomfield Park, in the year 1764, measured 68 feet in girt.

And notwithstanding the many arguments which have been advanc. ed to the contrary, the following instauces seem to prove satisfac

BELFAST MAG. NO. XXX,

9. the remainder of the tops tearly built a lighter, called the Royal Oak, which carried 40 tons; this was sold for £30. oak timber at that time sold for 1s. 6d. per foot. Our correspondent informs us the timber brought £97. but the bark being sold with other bark of the park, what it brought is not exactly known. Were more instances necessary to prove that the climate of Ireland seems peculiarly favourable to the growth of large timber, it would be easy to produce them. Our country has been long famous for the solidity and strength of its oak; we need not therefore travel abroad for this useful tree, our own woods produce in the greatest abundance the best kind of seed; but

A

If by the encroachments of power, or the supineness or venality of the con
ductors of the Press, THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS be lost, all other liber
ty will soon follow. IT IS THE SAFEGUARD OF FREEDOM..

VOL. VI.

FROM JANUARY TILL JUNE, 1811.

Belfast:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH SMYTH,

115, HIGH-STREET.

To whom Communications (post paid) are to be addressed.