51

51
— 1894 —
— July 30 —
— Whitefield, N.H. —
Warm day, very hazy in the distance. This A.M.
Fred & I drove to the village with my chest of
drawers crated. I expressed it straight home.
We did a number of errands. I made inqui-
ries at the R.R. Station, and shall go to Jaffrey
via Wells R. Junction, Bellows Falls & Keene to
Winchendon. We go probably Thursday Aug. 2nd.
Fred told me an interesting story. Some time ago
in the winter, he was cutting trees in the woods
when he saw a peculiar "White Maple (Acer rubra) Yellow Birch (Betula lutea).
The tree had probably blown down some years before,
and the trunk was prostrate for some 12 ft. The
trunk was some 10 in. through and the roots still
remaining in the ground served to keep it alive, for,
12 ft. from these roots, a branch has grown erect
some 40 ft. high, as high as the surrounding trees,
the trunk some 10 in. through. The top of the
original tree beyond this erect trunk, had decayed
away. Fred found, on cutting the tree down
that from the central 4 ft. of the prostrate trunk
a stout roots 6 in. in diameter had grown, and had taken so firm a
hold that after this central piece was cut off
at both ends, he couldn't start the log by
hitting it with his axe — He first thought it frozen
to the ground, till he investigated and found the roots.
— See further note under Aug. 2, 1894 —