348 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



bears it out in many particulars. Again, either 

 the chemists of Europe are at variance with ours 

 or else their trees are, for Gottlieb's table of the 

 heat-giving properties of European trees of 

 similar varieties turns ours upside down. Gott- 

 lieb's table of calorics puts oak at the bottom of 

 the list and pine at the top. ' It is as follows : 

 Oak, 46.20; ash, 47.11 ; elm, 47.28; beech, 47.74; 

 birch, 47.71 ; fir, 50.35 ; pine, 50.85. 



There is. a certain interest in all this, but to 

 him who lights the Yule log on Chrismas Eve it 

 probably matters little. He knows that pine will 

 kindle his fire readily and that one of the hard 

 woods will hold it longest. He knows that out 

 of the leaping flames, whether they be composed 

 of phlogiston or incandescent hydrogen, loved 

 fancies flashed into the minds of the elder race, 

 born of the flicker of flame on the imagination 

 of a primitive people, backed by dark forests, 

 night and wind-riding storms. If he have the 

 hardihood let him light his Yule log in the 

 winter twilight of the snowy woods. He will 

 do well to pick a spot where a dense growth of 

 pines shelters him from the wind and a steep 

 ledge makes for him fireplace and chimney at 

 once. Then it does not matter if the snow is 



