FOREST LIFE. 41 



about sixty-five feet of which was free of hmbs, and retained its 

 diameter remarkably well. I was employed about one hour and 

 a quarter in felling it. The afternoon was beautiful ; every thing 

 was calm, and to me the circumstances were deeply interesting. 

 After chopping an hour or so, the mighty giant, the growth of 

 centuries, which had withstood the hurricane, and raised itself 

 in peerless majesty above all around, began to tremble under the 

 strokes of a mere insect, as I might appear in comparison with 

 it. My heart palpitated as I occasionally raised my eye to its 

 pinnacle to catch the first indications of its fall. It came down 

 at length with a crash which seemed to shake a hundred acres, 

 while the loud echo rang through the forest, dying away among 

 the distant hills. It had a hollow in the butt about the size of 

 a barrel, and the surface of the stump was sufficiently capacious 

 to allow a yoke of oxen to stand upon it. It made five logs, and 

 loaded a six-ox team three times. The butt log was so large 

 that the stream did not float it in the spring, and when the drive 

 was taken down we were obliged to leave it behind, much to our 

 regret and loss. At the boom that log would have been worth 

 fitty dollars. 



Of the "White Pine there are varieties, which by some are 

 attributed to peculiar characteristics of the various locations in 

 which they grow. That variety called sapling Pine, bull sap- 

 ling, &c., usually grows on high, hard- wood land, or a mixture 

 of evergreens and deciduous trees ; particularly on the boundaries 

 which mark damp, low forests and the lower border of ridges. 

 The pumpkin Pine is generally found on fiat land and in ravines ; 

 also on abrupt ridges, called horsebacks, where the forest is dense. 



The sap or outside of the sapling Pine is much thicker than 

 that of the pumpkin Pine. I have seen it more than six inches 

 tliick on the former, and less than half an inch on the latter. 

 This dillerence is accounted for by the rapidity with which the 

 sapling grows, and the tardiness with which the swamp Pine ma- 



