THE UPLANDS IN WINTER 125 



sheltered places, clumps of birch trees had pros- 

 trated themselves radially from the central point. 

 United they stood, divided they fell. Rarely 

 was a branch or twig broken, all had been pliant 

 and yielding to the load. Not so in the case of 

 the canoe birches, the white birch of the north. 

 This tree, here at least, is less yielding, and 

 broken and partly broken branches and stems 

 were common. 



The tree that suffered most from this ice-storm 

 was the white maple. Its soft and brittle wood 

 was unable to bear the heavy load of ice, and 

 the snow underneath was covered with branches 

 and great limbs torn and splintered as if the trees 

 had been through a German barrage. Poplars 

 were also sadly broken and scarred as were to a 

 less degree the elms and the lindens. The icy 

 armor held the branches in a vise and they became 

 as brittle as the ice under the strain. All the 

 willows had become of the weeping variety. The 

 sturdy oak and apple and cherry hardly bent to 

 their burdens, much less broke, while native ever- 

 greens as a rule were unharmed. Hickories, 

 wahiuts, ashes and sumach — all with great com- 



