WHITE PINE FORESTS. 167 



branches die for a long" way up the stem, and drop 

 from the trees of their own accord Nature thus 

 enabling them to prune themselves, while the dense 

 canopy of interlacing branches creates so deep a 

 shade, that the ground is often quite bare below, 

 rendering it open and easy to traverse in consequence 

 of the absence of underwood. Bracken and but little 

 else, grows beneath, and the foot treads noiselessly 

 on a soft slippery surface of fallen tassels. * Un- 

 fortunately such a lot of white pine trees was just 

 the thing to attract the attention of a gang of lum- 

 bermen, whose destructive axes soon laid every fine 

 specimen low, so that it is to be feared a grove of 

 this kind is now becoming conspicuous only by its 

 absence, or at least being only to be found in the re- 

 moter solitudes of the forest, where long and expen- 

 sive expeditions must be taken to reach them, though 

 occasional groups of these majestic pines may still be 

 found, " and their summits seen at an immense distance, 

 aspiring toward heaven, far above the heads of the 

 surrounding trees." f 



In former days gigantic specimens of the Pinus 

 Strobus were common, and almost matched the magni- 

 ficent trees that are yet to be seen in Oregon and 

 British Columbia. Mr. Lambert, a well-known authority 

 on the pine tribe, speaking of the Pinus Strobus, 

 says: 



" It is certain that among full-grown trees on the best ground, 

 there are some 200 feet high, and 4 to 5 feet in diameter 

 at the lower end of the trunk. Wangenheim tells us that he 



* Forest Life in Arcadia, by Capt. Campbell Hardie, R.A., 1869, 

 pp. 2729. 



j- Echoes from the Backwoods, by Capt. R. G. A. Levinge, 1849. 

 Vol. i., p. 285. 



