A LABRADOR SPRING 
showed thirty-five rings in a trunk one inch and 
a quarter in diameter. A black spruce eleven 
inches tall and twenty-two in extent, with a 
trunk only one inch in diameter, had lived over 
half a century, showing fifty-two rings in its 
cross section. The sturdy little veteran wreaked 
his vengeance on me by making a great nick in 
the sheath-knife with which I laboured to 
dissect him and learn his secrets.”’* 
In this Labrador spring I counted the rings 
on the large stumps and in some of the smaller 
ones on the spot, but most of my studies are 
from sections that I cut and labelled, and 
afterwards studied at home, for the Labrador 
spring is so short. When the tree has grown 
rapidly the rings are wide and easily counted 
by the naked eye, but in most of the stunted 
Labrador trees the growth is so slow that a 
strong hand lens is necessary, and in some of 
the smaller, much stunted ones I made the 
sections with a razor, mounted them in a 
drop of oil, and counted the rings with the low 
power of a compound microscope. I found 
that careful smoothing of the section with a 
razor or sharp knife and oiling it brought 
* Along the Labrador Coast. Boston, 1907, pp. 43-44. 
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