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'^♦"'wo picturesque pine stumps stood for years 

 ^C/' in the edge of a grove near my cabin. They 

 looked as old as the hills. Although they had 

 wasted a little through weathering, they showed 

 no sign of decay. Probably they were the ruins 

 of yellow pine trees that before my day had 

 perished in a forest fire. The heat of the fire that 

 had caused their death had boiled the pores of 

 these stumps full of pitch. They were thus pre- 

 served, and would endure a long, long time. 



I often wondered how old they were. A chance 

 to get this information came one morning 

 when a number of old pines that grew around 

 these stumps were blown over. Among those 

 that went down were three large and ancient 

 yellow pines and several smaller lodge-pole 

 pines. These I dissected and studied, with the 

 idea that their annual wood rings, together with 

 the scars and embossments, might give informa- 



I2S 



