276 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



of many trees by counting the rings of growth 

 after they are cut. Cedars have been known to 

 show an annual increase of half to three-quarters 

 of an inch thus measured. Others have grown 

 so slowly that only with a microscope can the an- 

 nual rings be counted. I fancy my patriarch as 

 belonging to their lodge, nor would I be sur- 

 prised to learn that when its first plume appeared 

 above the ledges Indian tepees were the only 

 human habitations of the region. 



The red cedar seems to have a power to fix 

 itself on a rough ledge and grow there year after 

 year and indeed century after century, that is far 

 greater than that of any other tree. You will 

 find them on the rocks looking seaward along 

 much of our New England coast, some of them 

 the same trees known in the same spots since the 

 days of the earliest settlers, gnarled, stunted and 

 storm-beaten, but evergreen, and glowing with a 

 little of the gold of spring each year just the 

 same, typical, it always seems to me, of all that is 

 hardy and defiant in the New England character. 

 I know such cedars on the ledges which jut 

 southerly from the edge of the tiny plateau which 

 is the top of Blue Hill and you may find them on 

 many other ledges of the range. I believe these 



