116 THE PINE-TREE, OR 



own trunk, and the wrenched branches of other trees, rendered 

 brittle by the intense frosts, fly in every direction, hke the scat- 

 tered fragments of an exploding ship, always more or less en- 

 dangering life. Often those wrenched limbs are suspended di- 

 rectly over the place where our work requires our presence, and 

 on the slightest motion, or from a sudden gust of wind, they slip 

 down with the stealthiness of a hawk and the velocity of an ar- 

 row. I feel an involuntary shudder, as if now in the presence of 

 danger, while I remember some of the narrow escapes I have 

 had from death by the falling of such missiles. I recollect one 

 in particular, which was wrenched from a large Pine-tree I had 

 just felled. It lodged in the top of a towering Birch, directly 

 over where it was necessary for me to stand while severing the 

 top from the trunk. Viewing its position with some anxiety, I 

 ventured to stand and work under it, forgetting in the excitement 

 my danger. "While thus engaged, the limb stealthily slipped 

 from its position, and, falling directly before me end foremost, 

 penetrated the frozen earth. It was about four inches through, 

 and ten feet long. It just grazed my cap ; a little variation, and 

 it would have dashed my head in pieces. But my time had not 

 come. Attracted, on one occasion, while swamping a road, by 

 the appearance of a large limb which stuck fast in the ground, 

 curiosity induced me to extricate it, for the purpose of seeing how 

 far it had penetrated. After considerable exertion, I succeeded 

 in drawing it out, when I was perfectly amazed to find a thick 

 cloth cap on the end of it. It had penetrated the earth to a con- 

 siderable depth. Subsequently I learned that it belonged to a 

 man who was killed instantly by its fall, striking him on the 

 head, and carrying his cap into the ground with it. 



It is never safe to run from a falling tree in a line directly op- 

 posite from the course in which it falls, as it sometimes strikes 

 olher trees in such a way as to throw the butt from the stump. 

 I have sometimes seen them shoot back in this way with the 



