CHAP. CXIII. CONl'FERiE. ^BIe'tIN^. 2137 



Taylor, Esq. A heavy fall of snow had been succeeded by a partial thaw 

 and rain, followed by a severe frost, which enveloped " the trees and earth 

 in a thick coating of transparent ice." The following morning, the accumu- 

 lation of ice on the branches of the forest trees presented a beautiful and 

 extraordinary spectacle. The noblest timbers were every where to be seen 

 bending beneath the enormous load of ice with which their branches were 

 incrusted, and the heavy icicles which thickly depended from every point; 

 the thickness of the ice, even on the spray, often exceeding an inch. The 

 smaller trees, from 20 ft. to even 50 ft. in height, were bent to the ground by 

 this unwonted burden, and lay pressing on one another, resembUng fields of 

 gigantic corn, beaten down by a tempest. Above, the taller trees drooped and 

 swung heavily ; their branches glittering, as if formed of solid crystal ; and, 

 with the slightest breath of wind, clashhig against each other, and sending 

 down showers of ice. The following day, the limbs of the trees began to 

 give way beneath their load. The leafy spray of the hemlock spruce was 

 thickly incased, and hung drooping round the trunks upon the long pliant 

 branches, until the trees appeared like solid masses or monumental pillars of ice. 

 Every where around was heard the crashing of the branches of the loftiest 

 trees of the forest, which fell to the earth with a noise like the breaking 

 of glass, yet so loud as to make the woods resound. As the day advanced, 

 instead of branches, whole trees began to fall; and, during twenty-four hours, 

 the scene which took place was as sublime as can well be conceived. There 

 was no wind perceptible, yet, notwithstanding the calmness of the day, the 

 whole forest seemed in motion, falling, wasting, or crumbling, as it were, 

 piecemeal. Crash succeeded to crash, until at length these became so 

 rapidly continuous as to resemble the incessant discharges of artillery ; 

 gradually increasing, as from the irregular firing at intervals of the outposts, 

 to the uninterrupted roar of a heavy cannonade. Pines of 150 ft. and 180 ft. 

 in height came thundering to the ground, carrying others before them. 

 Under every tree was a rapidly accumulating debris of displaced limbs and 

 branches ; their weight increased more than tenfold by the ice, and crushing 

 every thing in their fall with sudden and terrific violence. Altogether, this 

 spectacle was one of indescribable grandeur. The roar, the cracking and 

 rending, the thundering fall of the uprooted trees, the startling unusual 

 sounds and sights produced by the descent of such masses of solid ice, and 

 the suddenness of the crash when a neighbouring tree gave way, was awful 

 in the extreme. Yet all this was going on in a dead calm, except, at intervals, 

 a gentle air from the south-east slightly waved the topmost pines. Had the 

 wind freshened, the destruction would have been still more appalling. 



Another kind of accident to which pine forests appear particularly liable 

 is their destruction by fire ; and, in Siberia and in North America, immense 

 tracts of pine forest are sometimes thus consumed. The fire generally ori- 

 ginates with man, either purposely or by accident ; but it is supposed some- 

 times also to be produced by the action of the sun upon the dry decayed 

 wood of fallen trees ; and sometimes, no doubt, it is the effect of lightning. 

 In Captain Hall's Sketches in Canada, &c., he gives the following description 

 of an American pine forest on fire : — " Sometimes the monotony of the pine 

 barren was interrupted, in no very pleasant style, by the heat and smoke 

 arising from the forest being on fire on both sides of us ; though, as it hap- 

 pened, we were never exposed to any danger, or to serious inconvenience, 

 in consequence of these conflagrations. The sketch {fig. 2011.) shows the 

 forest in the predicament we have alluded to. The tree in the foreground had 

 caught fire near the ground ; and having, I do not know how, been hollowed 

 out in its centre, the flames had crept up and burst out some feet higher, so 

 that they were roaring like a blast furnace, and rapidly demolishing the tree 

 at the bottom, while the branches at top were waving about in full verdure, 

 as if nothing unusual was going on below." {Hairs Sketches in Canada, &c.. No. 

 24.) M'Gregor informs us that in New Brunswick the forests are sometimes 

 purposely set on fire by the settlers, to avoid the labour of cutting down the 



