In all it appeared
to have 43 whorls, which is puzzling. Of these 20 were in the lower
part. This tree grew in dense shade.
At Fort Resolution we left the Canadian region of large timber and
entered the stunted spruce, as noted, and at length on the timber
line we saw the final effort of the forests to combat Jack Frost
in his own kingdom. The individual history of each tree is in three
stages:
First, as a low, thick, creeping bush sometimes ten feet across,
but only a foot high. In this stage it continues until rooted enough
and with capital enough to send up a long central shoot; which is
stage No. 2.
This central shoot is like a Noah's Ark pine; in time it becomes
the tree and finally the basal thicket dies, leaving the specimen
in stage No. 3.
A stem of one of the low creepers was cut for examination; it was
11 inches through and 25 years old. Some of these low mats of spruce
have stems 5 inches through. They must be fully 100 years old.
A tall, dead, white spruce at the camp was 30 feet high and 11
inches in diameter at 4 feet from the ground.
