I. 1. THE WHITE PINE. 61 



often to the height of 100, and sometimes, in the western part of 

 the State, to that of 130 or 140 feet. In the forest, they are 

 found with a shaft of a hundred feet, of arrowy straightness, 

 entirely free from limbs. Formerly they were seen much taller ; 

 for the largest and most valuable timber trees have long since been 

 cut down. Dr. Dwight informs us,* that they were frequently 

 250 feet in height and six feet in diameter ; and he mentions 

 one in Lancaster, N. H., which measured 264 feet. Fifty years 

 ago, several trees growing on rather dry land in Blandford, 

 measured, after they were felled, more than thirteen rods and 

 a half, — or 223 feet. Many large trees are still found on the 

 Penobscot and its branches. In the summer of 1841, a mast 

 was made on that river, which measured, after being hewn to 

 an octagonal shape, 90 feet in length, 36 inches in diameter at 

 the but, and 28 inches at the top. Many masts are annually 

 hewn on that river, from 70 to 90 feet in length. There is so 

 much grandeur in these magnificent columns, that it is surpris- 

 ing that so few have been left. There would be little danger 

 of their being prostrated by the wind, if left standing when the 

 forest is cut away about them, as their leafy branches usually 

 stand out, far above the tops of the trees by which they are 

 surrounded, and they are thus accustomed to bear the violence 

 of the storms. A clump of old white pines stands in perfect 

 security, near the church in Blandford, on one of the most ex- 

 posed points of the Green Mountain range. It is not uncom- 

 mon to see old pines standing, deformed by the loss of the lead- 

 ing shoot, a loss from which they never recover, unless it occurs 

 when the tree is quite young. Rarely two or more leaders are 

 seen going up together. f 



The roots of the white pine, even in the old trees of 70 or 100 

 feet in height, rarely penetrate more than two or three feet, 

 taper rapidly, and extend 12 or 15, not often 20 feet on every 



* Travels. Vol. I, p. 36. 



f An old pine in the depth of a forest is often interesting from the variety of veg- 

 etable life which it exhibits, — covered with lichens ; dotted Lecideas and Lecanoras 

 and Verrucarias closely investing the bark on the lower part of the trunk, star-like 

 Parmelias spreading over them, green and purple mosses in the crannies, and 

 tufts of Sticta, Ramalina and Usnea higher up. 



