THE LIVE-OAKERS. a37 



of the neighbouring trees. See how cautiously he proceeds, barefooted, 

 and with a handkerchief round his head. Now he has cHmbed to the 

 height of about forty feet from the ground ; he stops, and squaring him- 

 self with the trunk on which he so boldly stands, he wields with sinewy 

 arms his trusty blade, the repeated blows of which, although the tree be 

 as tough as it is large, will soon sever it in two. He has changed sides, 

 and his back is turned to you. The trunk now remains connected by 

 only a thin stripe of wood. He places his feet on the part which is lodg- 

 ed, and shakes it with all his might. Now sAvings the hnge log under 

 his leaps, now it suddenly gives way, and as it strikes upon the ground 

 its echoes are repeated through the hummock, and every wild turkey 

 within hearing utters his gobble of recognition. Tlie wood-cutter, how- 

 ever, remains collected and composed ; but the next moment, he throws 

 his axe to the ground, and, assisted by the nearest grape-vine, slides down 

 and reaches the earth in an instant. 



Several men approach and examine the prostrate trunk. They cut 

 at both its extremities, and sound the whole of its bark, to enable them 

 to judge if the tree has been attacked by the white rot. If such has un- 

 fortunately been the case, there, for a century or more, this huge log will 

 remain until it gradually crumbles ; but if not, and if it is free of injury 

 or " wind-shakes," while there is no appearance of the sap having already 

 ascended, and its pores are altogether sound, they proceed to take its 

 measurement. Its shape ascertained, and the timber that is fit for use 

 laid out by the aid of models, Avhich, like fragments of the skeleton of a 

 ship, shew the forms and sizes required, the " hewers" commence their 

 labours. Thus, reader, perhaps every known hummock in the Floridas is 

 annually attacked, and so often does it happen that the white-rot or some 

 other disease has deteriorated the quality of the timber, that the woods 

 may be seen strewn with trunks that have been found worthless, so that 

 every year these valuable oaks are becoming scarcer. The destruction of 

 the young trees of this species caused by the fall of the great trunks is of 

 course immense, and as there are no artificial plantations of these trees in 

 our country, before long a good sized live-oak will be so valuable that its 

 owner will exact an enormous price for it, even while it yet stands in the 

 wood. In my opinion, formed on personal observation, Live-oak Hum- 

 mocks are not quite so plentiful as they are represented to be, and of this 

 I will give you one illustration. 



