A LABRADOR SPRING 



and their exposure to the full fury of all the 

 winds that blew, appeared to be particularly 

 difficult places for the growth of trees, yet it 

 was evident that it was only by the slow growth 

 through many years of these trees and bushes 

 that the bog was consolidated and became fitted 

 for the support of a large growth. The forest 

 works in from the sides and extends in islands, 

 so gradually that centuries must elapse before 

 the progress is even noticeable. The truth of 

 this statement is made probable by the follow- 

 ing observations on trees of the bogs. Thus 

 in one of the bogs on top of Esquimaux Island, 

 a balsam fir whose trunk was three-quarters of 

 an inch in diameter, whose height was twelve 

 inches and the extent of whose branches was 

 twenty-four inches showed by its rings a 

 struggle of twenty-four years. A black spruce 

 six inches high with a trunk one and one-half 

 inches in diameter was fifty- three years old. 

 Another black spruce nine inches high and 

 one-half an inch in diameter was sixty-two 

 years old. 



Larches are common enough in the bogs, but 

 one must look carefully in order to pick up a 

 little tree with a trunk one-eighth of an inch 



210 



