THE LONGEVITY OF TREES. 111 
string his bow, and another sharpen his flint-knife with a pair 
of wooden pincers, and suspend it on the wrist of the right 
hand. Further testimony of their intention was unnecessary. 
To save myself by flight was impossible ; so, without hesita- 
tion, I stepped back about five paces, cocked my gun, drew 
one of the pistols out of my belt, and holding it in my left 
hand and the gun in my right, showed myself determined to 
fight for my life. As much as possible I endeavored to pre- 
serve my coolness; and thus we stood looking at one another 
without making any movement or uttering a word for perhaps 
ten minutes, when one, at last, who seemed the leader, gave 
a sign that they wished for some tobacco: this I signified 
that they should have, if they fetched me a quantity of cones. 
They went off immediately in search of them, and no sooner 
were they all out of sight, than I picked up my three cones 
and some twigs of the trees, and made the quickest possible 
retreat, hurrying back to: my camp, which I reached before 
dusk. The Indian who last undertook to be my guide to 
the trees, I sent off before gaining my encampment, lest he 
should betray me. How irksome is the darkness of night 
to one under my present circumstances! I cannot speak a 
word to my guide, nor have I a book to divert my thoughts, 
which are continually occupied with the dread lest the hostile 
Indians should trace me hither and make an attack. I now 
write lying on the grass, with my gun cocked beside me, and 
penning these lines by the light of my Columbian candle, 
namely, an ignited piece of rosiny wood.” (‘* Companion to 
Botanical Magazine,” ii. pp. 130, 181.) 
It is to be regretted, although, under the circumstances, it 
is by no means surprising, that Mr. Douglas did not secure, 
at the time, complete data for ascertaining the age of the 
prostrate trunk he measured, which, as he states, was certainly 
not the largest he saw. But in a block from a smaller trunk, 
of the same species, he sent to England, “there are fifty-six 
annual layers in a space of four and a half inches next the 
outside.” If we suppose the large tree to have grown at an 
equivalent rate throughout, it must have been 1400 years old 
when overthrown. Sut if it grew during the first century at 
