OcT., 1899.] WHITE-BARK PINE BELT. 45 
the trees grow, thicken into irregular plates transversely broken at 
intervals of & to 12 inches. 
In the growing tree the branches die from below upward in a curious 
way. First a subdivision of alow branch dies and the tips curl down- 
ward and inward, drawing together until they form a close curl or 
tail which van be set on fire by a single watch. Dozens of these curls 
can be seen on most of the young trees, and also on the lowermost 
remaining branches of the middle-sized and some of the old ones. This 
process of dying and curling continues until all the lower branches are 
dead, Meanwhile, the curl-tails gradually drop off and litter the 
ground, leaving the bare dead branches hanging down at a sharp angle. 
These dead branches hug the trunks closer than the living ones and 
cling on until the bark comes off, when they form an armature of 
negra 
wetlae, Prat — y PE} 
Fic. 27.—Group of alpine hemlocks. 
unsightly bleached and brittle sticks pointing downward around the 
trunk. These in time break off, too, so that as the tree grows into 
maturity the handsome trunk finally becomes clear and clean. 
The alpine hemlocks are prolific bearers and the ground is always 
strewn with their cast-off cones, which average about 24 inches in 
length, and have a dark streak down the middle of each scale. When 
young the cones are conical, when old and the scales become fully 
reflexed they are slender, subcylindrical and only three-fourths of an 
inch in diameter. Year after year the cones fall to the ground in 
such prodigious numbers that they form a very important part in 
the layer of felting that covers the surface in the hemlock forests— 
a loose dark felting composed of disintegrating needles, twigs, and cone 
scales pressed firmly together by the weight of the snow in winter, and 
