CHAPTER IX 



SOME LABRADOR TREES 



" Arbores magnae diu crescunt; 

 Una hora extirpantur." 



Curtius. 



T^NOS A. MILLS 1 has recently described 

 "^ the incidents in the life of a giant yellow 

 pine, in the stump of which he counted 1047 

 rings. From this he concluded that the year 

 of the great tree's birth was somewhere in 

 the ninth century after Christ. A long and 

 careful dissection and study of the fallen 

 monarch that in life had attained a height of 

 over a hundred and fifteen feet, and a trunk 

 eight feet in diameter, revealed many secrets. 

 The rings showed seasons of drought or cold, 

 periods of prosperity and again of stress and 

 injury. Lightning and fire left their indelible 

 marks, as well as the effect of heavy winter 

 snows; two imprisoned stone arrow heads and 



1 Wild Life on the Rockies. Boston, 1909, p. 31. 

 206 



