REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 33 
loss as light as possible they made haste to open roads in the 
forest that they might draw out and work up as many dead 
spruces as practicable before decay should render them entirely 
worthless. But with all their promptness they suffered no 
inconsiderable loss, for these dead trees soon became too much 
decayed to make marketable lumber. 
I have asked lumbermen and others who have been aware 
of the destruction of the spruces, what theory they held in 
respect to the cause of it. Their theories are various, but the 
most prevalent attribute it to excessive dry weather or to the 
agitation of the trees by high winds. The few observations 
that I have been able to make lead me to adopt a theory quite 
different from these, and though the discussion of it belongs 
rather to the province of the entomologists than of the botan- 
ists, such is the importance of the subject that I cannot with- 
hold a brief account of my investigations and conclusions. 
In Angust a collecting trip was undertaken in the vicinity 
of Lake Pleasant, Hamilton county. While there it became 
apparent to me that I was in a region where the spruces were 
dying. Standing near the outlet of the lake and looking upon 
the distant mountain slopes toward the north-east, east and 
south, patches of brown appeared here and there mingled 
with the usual dark green hue of the forest. The inhabitants 
told me that these brown patches were groups of dead 
spruces ; that the spruce trees were then rapidly dying, and 
had been for two or three years previous, and that in conse- 
quence the value of the woodland was greatly diminishing. 
One of the most conspicuous of these brown patches was on 
the slope of Speculator Mountain, a little more than half way 
from the base to the summit. Preparations were therefore 
made to visit this locality. Once on the ground it needed but 
little observation to satisfy me that the destructive process was 
then in operation. The ground under some of the spruces 
was thickly strewn with their fallen leaves, yet green, and 
every agitating wind was bringing down more of them. The 
bark of these trees, and of others already dead, was perfo- 
rated in many places with small round holes scarcely one- 
eighth of an inch in diameter. Upon stripping a piece of bark 
from the trunk of one of the affected trees, the apparent cause 
of the mischief was at once revealed. The surface of the wood 
and the inner layers of the bark were abundantly furrowed by 
5 
