(Roc^g (mountain TI?onbet:(anb 



tion concerning the death of the old brown-gray 

 stumps. 



Two of the yellow pines showed two hundred 

 and fifty-six annual rings ; the other showed two 

 hundred and fifty-five. All carried fire scars, 

 received in the year 1781. Apparently, then, 

 the stumps had been dead and weathering since 

 1 78 1. The annual rings in the overthrown lodge- 

 poles showed that they started to grow in 1782. 

 Lodge-pole pines commonly spring up immedi- 

 ately after a fire; these had 'apparently taken 

 possession of the ground as soon as it was laid 

 bare by the fire that had killed and partly con- 

 sumed the two yellow pines and injured the 

 three scarred ones. Since the lodge-poles were 

 free from fire scars, since the yellow pine showed 

 no scar after 1781, and since all these trees had 

 stood close about the stumps, it was plain that 

 the stumps were the remnants of trees that 

 perished in a forest fire in 1 78 1. 



Later, a number of trees elsewhere in the 

 grove were called upon to testify, and these 

 told a story that agreed with that of the trees 

 that had stood close to the stumps. These 



126 



