FOIiEST TREES. 



159 



increasing year after year as the tree comes to maturity. The bark has 

 roughened and divided into rugged masses, deeply channelled somewhat 

 lozenge-wise, becoming of a whitish grey without, but of a deep, brick- 

 red within, lying in thin layers one upon the other. In the Red Pine the 

 bark exfoliates, and is thrown off in shell-like plates in the older trees. 

 In very old Pines, the bark thickens to the depth of some inches. 

 Within this crust various insects deposit their eggs — each trunk 

 ■containing a world in itself of insect life. 



The great Red-headed Woodpecker, with others of the tribe, attack 

 these trees ; instinct teaches them where they may fmd the hidden food 

 in the greatest abundance. 



From early dawn till sunset calls them to their rest, the forest 

 resounds with their noisy labour, tapping, rapping, rending, till large 

 sheets of bark alfeady loosened by the worms beneath, strew the ground 

 in broken fragments, while the tree, naked and bare and desolate, stands 

 among its fellows with death and decay stamped upon its pillar-hke 

 trunk. It is a curious sight that stately column all graven as with some 

 •curious grooving tool in a thousand fanciful devices — some like a rare 

 intaglio all deeply cut in curved and wavy lines, as by some cunning 

 hand, the tracery varying in length, and depth, and breadth according 

 to the size and nature of the insect labourer. There are some forming 

 the most delicate and elaborate lace patterns, others as if an attempt 

 had been made to imitate the stem and branches of a tree. These 

 things are the work of the borers and sawyers. 



The inmates of a new log house or shanty in the bush are often 

 startled by the curious sounds that arise during the still hours of the 

 night, for it is then that they are chiefly noticed, and the wakeful good- 

 Avife wonders what can cause the monotonous creaking, rasping, noise 

 that she hears for hours together, or what has made those heaps of fine 

 sawdust lying on the cleanly swept floor below the unbarked walls of her 

 cabin. These sounds and these heaps of sawdust are the work of the 

 indefatigable sawyers enlarging their domiciles within the bark of the 

 Pine logs. 



These sawyers are large flat-bodied worms of a yellowish colour, 

 with red heads and strong jaws ; the upper part of the creature's body 

 which is composed of many flexible rings, is broader than the lower. 

 The surface of the body is rough and adheres to the finger when you 

 touch the skin. The creaking sound is produced by the creature 

 gnawing the wood upon which it feeds. These insects are among the 

 countless hosts that make their dwelling in the forest trees and bring 

 them to destruction by slow but certain steps. 



