A LABRADOR SPRING 



showed thirty-five rings in a trunk one inch and 

 a quarter in diameter. A black spruce eleven 

 inches tall and twenty-two in extent, with a 

 trunk only one inch in diameter, had lived over 

 half a century, showing fifty-two rings in its 

 cross section. The sturdy little veteran wreaked 

 his vengeance on me by making a great nick in 

 the sheath-knife with which I laboured to 

 dissect him and learn his secrets." x 



In this Labrador spring I counted the rings 

 on the large stumps and in some of the smaller 

 ones on the spot, but most of my studies are 

 from sections that I cut and labelled, and 

 afterwards studied at home, for the Labrador 

 spring is so short. When the tree has grown 

 rapidly the rings are wide and easily counted 

 by the naked eye, but in most of the stunted 

 Labrador trees the growth is so slow that a 

 strong hand lens is necessary, and in some of 

 the smaller, much stunted ones I made the 

 sections with a razor, mounted them in a 

 drop of oil, and counted the rings with the low 

 power of a compound microscope. I found 

 that careful smoothing of the section with a 

 razor or sharp knife and oiling it brought 



1 Along the Labrador Coast. Boston, 1907, pp. 43-44. 

 208 



