FOREST LIFE. 99 



tions than among the noble Pmes in the north and east. There 

 is a cancerons disease peculiar to the Pine-tree, to which lumber- 

 men give the original name of "Conk" or "Ko7ihics." The man- 

 ifestation of this disease on the outside of the tree, usually sev- 

 eral feet from the butt end, is a small spot of a brown color, 

 sometimes resembling gingerbread in appearance and texture, 

 protruding as a general thing only to the surface, and varying in 

 size from a ninepence to the crown of a hat. In some clumps 

 of Pine, all that indicates the presence of this disease is a little 

 yellow pitch starting out through the bark and trickling down 

 the outside. 



The uninitiated would be led to suspect but little, if indeed any, 

 harm from an appearance so slight and unnoticeable as that pre- 

 sented by the konkus. It exerts no influence either upon the size 

 or beautiful proportions of the tree, as those most seriously af- 

 fected, in outward appearances, are as handsomely grown as the 

 most perfect, which leads to the conclusion that the disease does 

 not much affect them until, quite mature. 



On cutting one of these trees, the infection is found to spread 

 itself, more or less., throughout the trunk, turning the wood to a 

 reddish color, making it spongy in texture ; and while the fibrous 

 portions of the wood retain their thread-like straightness, the mar- 

 rowy portion or flesh-like membranes, and intermediate layers be- 

 tween the fibers, appear dry and of a milky whiteness. Some- 

 times the rot shoots upward, in imitation of the streaming light 

 of the Aurora Borealis ; in others .downward, and even both ways, 

 preserving the same appearance. 



Large families, and even communities of the Pine, are thus in- 

 fected, so that in a group of thirty trees perhaps not more than 

 half a dozen short logs can be obtained. 



Frauds are sometimes practiced upon those .who purchase loo-s, 

 by driving a knot or piece of a limb of the" same tree into the 

 konkus and hewing it off smoothly, so that it has the appear- 



