Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/313

Rh above, Rhododendron lapponicum, some time out of bloom, in the midst of empetrum and moss, according to Durand, at 68° in Greenland, Arctostaphylos alpina going to seed, Polygonum viviparum, in prime according to Durand, at all Kane's stations, and Salix harbacea, according to Duraud, at 73° in Greenland, a pretty, trailing, roundish-leaved willow going to seed, but apparently not as early as the Salix uva ursi.

July 11, 1858. One of the slender spruce trees by our camp, which we cut down, twenty-eight feet high, and only six and a half inches in diameter, though it looked young and thrifty, had about 80 rings, and the firs were at least as old.

After some observation I concluded that it was true, as Wentworth had intimated, that the lower limbs of the spruce slanted downward more generally than those of the fir.

July 12, 1858. It having cleared up, we shouldered our packs and commenced our descent by a path two and a half or three miles to carriage road, not descending a great deal. Trees at first, fir and spruce, then canoe birches increased, and, after two miles, yellow birch began.

I had noticed that the trees of the ravine camp, fir and spruce, did not stand firmly. Two