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A FORESTER AT THE FIGHTING FROx\T 



BY P. L. BUTTRICK 



OU have seen in winter bare New LLni^lnrd or w^:st- French and German trenches and in "No Man's Land" be- 

 ern hillsides from which all the timber has been tween was so striking that when a French "75" "went off" 

 cut, except a few struggling, undersized trees and concealed nearby, the report subconsciously mterjireted it- 

 self to my mind 

 as a dynamite 

 charge set olT 

 by the stump- 

 blasting crew 

 working on a 

 new cutting. 



The boom of 

 the exploding 

 shell and the 

 column of dust 

 spurting into 

 the air i" 

 Boche land 

 across the for- 

 bidden zone 

 even more 

 easily became 

 in imagination 

 a fallen pine 

 raising a snow 

 cloud as its 

 spreading 

 branches h i t 

 the ground. 



After t h e 

 Battle of the 

 Marne the Ger- 

 man retreat be- 

 tween Rheims 

 a n d \'erdun 

 stopped at one 

 ]ilace just out 

 side a little 

 village called 

 Prones. This 

 village is about 

 half way up 

 the western 

 slope of a 

 small valley. 



The French 

 first line o f 

 trenches were 

 just below the 

 village and the 

 German's a lit- 

 tle lower down 

 in the valley. 

 The valley on 

 both sides was 

 covered with a 



a few old snags 

 and over which 

 a fire has 

 swept, burning 

 up the slash 

 and blackening 

 the snags and 

 remaining 

 trees. Over this 

 a light snow 

 has fallen, not 

 heavy enough 

 to form a com- 

 plete mantle, 

 but sufficient 

 to cover most 

 of the surface. 

 Roughly fol- 

 lowing t h I'. 

 contour of tlu 

 hill and here 

 and there run- 

 ning up and 

 d o w n across 

 them are little 

 ribbons, which 

 stand out 

 some what; 

 skid roads, 

 roughly h o 1- 

 lowed trails 

 made in get- 

 ting the timber 

 down the slope. 

 Such too fa- 

 miliar scene of 

 desolation 

 greeted m y 

 eyes when I 

 first ia.mt out 

 in the o]5en 

 from a young 

 pine forest and 

 looked out 

 across a valley 

 into a section 

 o f reclaimed 

 but devastated 

 France. The 

 resemblance of 

 the desolated 

 country about 



710 



Photograph Underwood & Underwood^ Nezv York. 



WELL HIDDEN TRENXH IN THE BRITISH LINES 

 It is safe to assume that the German forces would have difliculty in locating a trench as well concealed as 

 the one here pictured. The timbers still carry spreading boughs and these give an elTect that would make 

 the real purpose of the trench hard to detect at a distance, whether viewed from an airplane or froni 

 the ground. The picture was taken as an official war photograph. 



Plu.tniirat'h by P. L. Biillrut 



WOOD IS USED EVERYWHERE 

 It is not merely in regular trench work thai the product of the forest is utilized in building trench defenses. 

 This picture shows reserve trench built up with baskets of pine boughs filled with sod. Such defetises are 



frfqut-Ilt- 



