332 



THE FIR TRIBE. 



It has been observed above that the Firs are 

 less liable to be overladen with snow than if they 

 were furnished with broad leaves, like the trees 

 which grow in the plains. The Norway Spruce, 

 it will be seen hereafter, is more subject to acci- 

 dents from this cause than other European species ; 

 and when, as sometimes happens, the overcharged 

 clouds descend in the form of rain, which freezes 

 fast to the leaves and branches, the effect is 

 terrific. 



A traveller in the Alleghany mountains relates, 

 that on the morning after an ^' ice-storm" of this 

 kind, ^' the accumulation of ice on the branches 

 of the forest trees presented a beautiful and 

 extraordinary spectacle. The noblest timber- 

 trees were everywhere to be seen bending beneath 

 the enormous load of ice with which their branches 

 were encrusted, and the heavy icicles which 

 thickly depended from every point, — the thickness 

 of the ice, even on the spray, often exceeding an 

 inch. The smaller trees, from twenty feet to 

 even fifty feet in height, were bent to the ground 

 by this unwonted burden, and lay pressing on 

 one another, resembling fields of gigantic corn 

 beaten down by a tempest. Above, the taller 

 trees drooped and swung heavily : their branches 

 glittering, as if formed of solid crystals ; and, 

 with the slightest breath of wind, clashing against 

 each other, and sending down showers of ice. 

 The following day, the limbs of the trees began 

 to give way beneath their load. The leafy spray 

 of the Hemlock Spruce was thickly incased, and 

 hung drooping round the trunks upon the long 

 pliant branches, until the trees appeared like 

 solid masses or monumental pillars of ice. Every 



