THE SPRUCE INVESTIGATION. 



219 



pose. In some sections, notably on Shaver's Fork of Cheat, the 

 logs are transported from mountain sides and summits by 

 means of log slides. (See Fig. XIV.) 



Thus, in worked over regions we find the first year a laby- 

 rinth of log roads, log slides, and railroads through the stand- 

 ing laurel ; and between immense piles and windrows of spruce 

 tops, old logs, broken trees and brush, a perfect harbor and 

 hotbed for myriads of wood and bark infesting insects. 

 The species of insect that would otherwise attack the 

 ilving timber are attracted to the more inviting, recently 

 felled, trees and tops found here and to the partly green 

 stumps where they breed and multiply, and in turn furnish 

 abundant food for their natural enemies. Many kinds of the 

 bark and wood infesting species which develop broods of 

 young the first season, migrate to fresh cutting where they are 

 followed by their enemies, while those that are more tardy in 

 their developments remain in the old cuttings until the follow- 

 ing year, before they emerge, or they are caught by the fire, 

 which sooner or later claims this mass of inflammable rubbish. 



Fig. XV. Rocks on which Spruce 

 trees had grown, near Davis. 



After the fire has once 

 passed over a cutting 

 there is often nothing 

 left but bare rocks, charred 

 stumps and logs, (Fig. XV.) presenting a most desolate ap- 

 pearance in contrast with the previous luxuriant growth . 



