t^i Bobges^pofe {pint 



of the bark away, and leave the tree, together 

 with its numerous seed-filled cones, unconsumed. 

 As a rule, the fire so heats the cones that most 

 of them open and release their seeds a few hours, 

 or a few days, after the fire. If the area burned 

 over is a large one, the fire loosens the clasp of 

 the cone-scales and millions of lodge-pole seeds 

 are released to be sown by the great eternal seed- 

 sower, the wind. These seeds are thickly scattered, 

 and as they germinate readily in the mineral soil, 

 enormous numbers of them sprout and begin 

 to struggle for existence. I once counted 84,322 

 young trees on an acre. 



The trees often stand as thick as wheat in a 

 field and exclude all other species. Their growth 

 is slow and mostly upright. They early become 

 delicate miniature poles, and often, at the age of 

 twenty-five or thirty years, good fishing-poles. 

 In their crowded condition, the competition is 

 deadly. Hundreds annually perish, but this tree 

 clings tenaciously to life, and starving it to death 

 is not easy. In the summer of 1895 I counted 

 24,271 thirty-year-old lodge-poles upon an acre. 



Ten years later, 19,040 of these were alive. It is 



187 



