THE LONGEVITY OF TREES. Ill 



string his bow, and another sharpen his flint-knife with a pair 

 of wooden pincers, and suspend it on the wrist of the right 

 hand. Further testimony of their intention was unnecessary. 

 To save myself by flight was impossible ; so, without hesita- 

 tion, I stepped back about five paces, cocked my gun, drew 

 one of the pistols out of my belt, and holding it in my left 

 hand and the gun in my right, showed myself determined to 

 fight for my life. As much as possible I endeavored to pre- 

 serve my coolness ; and thus we stood looking at one another 

 without making any movement or uttering a word for perhaps 

 ten minutes, when one, at last, who seemed the leader, gave 

 a sign that they wished for some tobacco : this I signified 

 that they should have, if they fetched me a quantity of cones. 

 They went off immediately in search of them, and no sooner 

 were they all out of sight, than I picked up my three cones 

 and some twigs of the trees, and made the quickest possible 

 retreat, hurrying back to my camp, which I reached before 

 dusk. The Indian who last undertook to be my guide to 

 the trees, I sent off before gaining my encampment, lest he 

 should betray me. How irksome is the darkness of night 

 to one under my present circumstances ! I cannot speak a 

 word to my guide, nor have I a book to divert my thoughts, 

 which are continually occupied with the dread lest the hostile 

 Indians should trace me hither and make an attack. I now 

 write lying on the grass, with my gun cocked beside me, and 

 penning these lines by the light of my Columbian candle, 

 namely, an ignited piece of rosiny wood." (" Companion to 

 Botanical Magazine," ii. pp. 130, 131.) 



It is to be regretted, although, under the circumstances, it 

 is by no means surprising, that Mr. Douglas did not secure, 

 at the time, complete data for ascertaining the age of the 

 prostrate trunk he measured, which, as he states, was certainly 

 not the largest he saw. But in a block from a smaller trunk, 

 of the same species, he sent to England, " there are fifty-six 

 annual layers in a space of four and a half inches next the 

 outside." If we suppose the large tree to have grown at an 

 equivalent rate throughout, it must have been 1400 years old 

 when overthrown. But if it grew during the first century at 



