6o THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



wood. The rain soaks in there, and filtrates slowly down 

 the trunk, whose very heart as it were is eaten away, 

 while outside all is fair enough. 



Presently there arises a mighty wind, the tree snaps clean 

 off twenty feet above the ground, and the upper part falls, 

 a ponderous ruin, carrying with it one of the finest boughs 

 of its nearest companion, and destroying its symmetry also. 

 When examined, it appears that the trunk is totally useless 

 as timber : this noble-seeming elm is fit for nothing but 

 fuel. Or, perhaps, if there be water meadows on the 

 estate, the farmers may be glad of it to act as a huge pipe 

 to convey the fertilising stream across a ditch, or over a 

 brook lying at a lower level. For this purpose, of course, 

 the rotten part is scooped out : often the trunk is sawn 

 down the middle, so as to make a double length. 



But what a gap it has left in the great avenue ! In a 

 minute the growth of a century gone, the delight of 

 generations swept away, and no living man, hardly the 

 heir in his cradle, can hope to see that unsightly gap 

 filled up. 



The keeper does not hesitate to say that of the great 

 trees in the avenues numbers stand in constant danger of 

 such overthrow ; and so it is that by slow degrees so many 

 of the kings of the forest have disappeared without leaving 

 successors. No care is taken to plant fresh saplings, no 

 care is taken to select and remove the trees which have 

 passed the meridian of their existence, and the final result 



