26 Our Field and Forest Trees 



Father Hennepin, used to travel through these 

 very woods, carrying the crucifix and its story 

 from one Indian village to another, and he says 

 in his journal that he " was in the habit of making 

 blazes on the trees." This may have been one 

 of them. 



On leafless trees we may see traces of severe 

 wounds made without knife or axe (Fig. ii). 

 There may be long scars, running up and down 

 the trunk, where, after, some freezing night, the 

 wood split open. Such splits are most likely to 

 occur in early spring, when there are sudden and 

 violent changes in temperature. Warm sunshine 

 thaws all the fluid in the wood, and starts the 

 upward movement of the sap ; then winter comes 

 howling back with twilight and freezes the timber 

 with all its watery contents. These splits are seen 

 generally on the southwest side of the trunks 

 where sunshine has warmed the wood late in the 

 day. In northern countries frost-splits often occur 

 in earliest spring, even In the deep woods. The 

 rending apart of a frozen trunk shatters the forest 

 silence like a gun-shot. If the tree Is young and 

 healthy the crack closes up during the spring, and 

 after awhile new wood and bark grow over the 

 wound. But there will be a scar, running down 

 the trunk, and marring its perfection of form, and 

 if the tree is neither young nor vigorous, or if the 

 crack goes very deep, it may become an open 

 wound — a point of attack and a way of entrance 



