A SPRAY OF PINE 41 



The Norseman of the woods, lofty and aspiring, 

 tree without bluster or noise, that sifts the howling 

 storm into a fine spray of sound; symmetrical tree, 

 tapering, columnar, shaped as in a lathe, the preor- 

 dained mast of ships, the mother of colossal tim- 

 bers; centralized, towering, patriarchal, coming down 

 from the foreworld, counting centuries in thy rings 

 and outlasting empires in thy decay. 



A little tall talk seems not amiss on such a sub- 

 ject. The American or white pine has been known 

 to grow to a height of two hundred and sixty feet, 

 slender and tapering as a rush, and equally available 

 for friction matches or the mast of a ship of the 

 line. It is potent upon the sea and upon the land, 

 and lends itself to become a standard for giants or 

 a toy for babes, with equal readiness. No other 

 tree so widely useful in the mechanic arts, or so 

 beneficent in the economy of nature. House of 

 refuge for the winter birds, and inn and hostelry 

 for the spring and fall emigrants. All the northern 

 creatures are more or less dependent upon the pine. 

 Nature has made a singular exception in the confor- 

 mation of the beaks of certain birds, that they might 

 the better feed upon the seeds of its cones, as in 

 the crossbills. Then the pine grosbeak and pine 

 linnet are both nurslings of this tree. Certain of 

 the warblers, also, the naturalist seldom finds except 

 amid its branches. 



The dominant races come from the region of the 

 pine. 



