That is a question for naturalists. The next morning, when we went
out to look for witches' brooms, there was not a hare in sight, except
those that Addison had killed.
The witches' brooms were plentiful in the fir swamp along the stream;
and as they were usually high up in the tree tops and not easily reached
by climbing, we began to cut down such firs as had them. At that time
and in that remote place, a fir-tree was of no value whatever.
Firs are easy trees to fell, for the wood is very soft, but they are bad
to climb or handle on account of the pitch. We cut down about fifty
trees that day, and left them as they fell, after getting the one or
more witches' brooms in the top. Of those, we got eighty-two, all told;
with the green fir boughs that went with them, they pretty nearly filled
the rack. All were sear and dry, for they were just a densely interwoven
mass of little twigs, but they contained a great many yellow flakes of
dried pitch. In two of them we found the nests of flying squirrels; but
in both cases the squirrels "flew" before the tree fell, and sailed away
to other firs, standing near.
Altogether, it was a day of hard work.
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