Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/91

Rh should entitle to a more grateful and lasting remembrance, than that which promotes the right education of youth; especially in a republic, where most emphatically "knowledge is power," and ignorancand vice subversive of safety.

The Great Western Tree, so celebrated for its antiquity and magnificence, is on the estate of the late Hon. James Wadsworth. It is a white oak, of massy foliage, with a trunk seventy feet in height, ere the protrusion of the branches, and thirty in circumference, so that seven persons are scarcely able to clasp it, with arms extended to their utmost length. It stands on the banks of the Geneseo, whose gently flowing waters wind their way through broad valleys, studded with fine trees, rising singly or in groups, and forming the very perfection of park scenery. In the old Maps of New York, the surrounding region bears the appellation of "Big Tree," and an Indian chieftain of the same name, formerly ruled over a tribe inhabiting that vicinity. In winter he resided on the uplands, and in summer came with his people, to cultivate some lands adjoining the "Big Tree." Beneath its dense canopy the chiefs of neighboring tribes often assembled to hold council, to see their young men contend in athletic games, to advise them to good conduct, and invoke on their nation, the blessing of the Great Spirit.

This majestic Oak is suppossed to have attained the age of at least 1000 and possibly 1500 years. Of its