| oe THE WHITE PINE. 61 
often to the height of 100, and sometimes, in the western part of 
the State, to that of 130 or 140 feet. In the forest, they are 
found with a shaft of a hundred feet, of arrowy straightness, 
entirely free from limbs. Formerly they were seen much taller ; 
for the largest and most valuable timber trees have long since been 
cut down. Dr. Dwight imforms us,* that they were frequently 
250 feet in height and six feet in diameter; and he mentions 
one in Lancaster, N. H., which measured 264 feet. Fifty years 
ago, several trees growing on rather dry land in Blandford, 
measured, after they were felled, more than thirteen rods and 
a half—or 223 feet. Many large trees are still found on the 
Penobscot and its branches. In the summer of 1841, a mast 
was made on that river, which measured, after being hewn to 
an octagonal shape, 90 feet in length, 36 inches in diameter at 
the but, and 28 inches at the top. Many masts are annually 
hewn on that river, from 70 to 90 feet in length. ‘There is so 
much grandeur in these magnificent columns, that it is surpris- 
ing that so few have been left. There would be little danger 
of their being prostrated by the wind, if left standing when the 
forest is cut away about them, as them leafy branches usually 
stand out, far above the tops of the trees by which they are 
surrounded, and they are thus accustomed to bear the violence 
of the storms. A clump of old white pies stands in perfect 
security, near the church in Blandford, on one of the most ex- 
posed points of the Green Mountain range. It 1s not uncom- 
mon to see old pines standing, deformed by the loss of the lead- 
ing shoot, a loss from which they never recover, unless it occurs 
when the tree is quite young. Rarely two or more leaders are 
seen going up together.t 
The roots of the white pine, even in the old trees of 70 or 100 
feet in height, rarely penetrate more than two or three feet, 
taper rapidly, and extend 12 or 15, not often 20 feet on every 
* Travels. Vol. I, p. 36. 
+ An old pine mthe depth of a forest 1s often interesting from the variety of veg- 
etable life which 1t exhibits,—covered with hchens; dotted Lecideas and Lecanoras 
and Verrucarias closely investing the bark on the lower part of the trunk, star-like 
Parmelias spreading over them, green and purple mosses in the crannies, and 
tufts of Sticta, Ramalina and Usnea higher up. 
