PINES. 
193 
forty trees, varying in their girth from five or six to twelve feet ; 
and in height, from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and sixty 
feet. Owing to their unscreened position and their height, these 
trees may be clearly distinguished for miles, whether from the lake, 
the hills, or the roads about the country — a land-mark overtopping 
the humble church-spires, and every object raised by man within 
the bounds of the valley. Their rude simplicity of outline, the 
erect, unbending trunks, their stem, changeless character, and their 
scanty drapery of foliage, unconsciously lead one to fancy them an 
image of some band of savage chiefs, emerging in a long, dark line 
from the glen in their rear, and gazing in wonder upon their former 
hunting-grounds in its altered aspect. 
The preservation of those old pines must depend entirely upon 
the will of their owner ; they are private property ; we have no 
right to ask that they may be spared, but it is impossible to be- 
hold their hoary tmnks and crested heads without feeling a hope 
that they may long continue unscathed, to look down upon the 
village which has sprung up at their feet. They are certainly 
one of the most striking objects in the county, and we owe a debt 
of gratitude to the hand which has so long preserved them, one 
of the honors of our neighborhood. It needs but a few short 
minutes to bring one of these trees to the ground ; the rudest boor 
passing along the highway may easily do the deed ; but how 
many years must pass ere its equal stand on the same spot ! Let 
us pause to count the days, the months, the years ; let us num- » 
her the generations that must come and go, the centuries that must 
roll onward, ere the seed sown from this year’s cones shall pro- 
duce a wood like that before us. The stout arm so ready to raise 
the axe to-day, must grow weak with age, it must drop into the 
9 
