PART II. CHAPTER I. The Pines.--White Pines: rank claimed for this Variety.-- Predilections.--Comparison instituted.--Pitch and Norway Pines. --White Pine.--Magnitude.--New York Pines.--Lambert's Pine on Northwest Coast.--Varieties.--Its Rank.--Great variety of purposes to which it is devoted.--Great Pine near Jackson Lake.--Capital Invested.--Hands employed on the Penobscot. After the foregoing brief notice of some of the most interesting trees, we come at length to consider that species which constitutes the theme of the following pages. The PINE has been appropriately called the Monarch of the Forest. Taken all in all, it is the crowning master-piece of all woody plants. This avowal is made in full view of what has been said respecting other specimens of the vegetable kingdom. From early education, we are accustomed to regard some things as before others in point of merit, whether truth in the case would support our notions or not. For trees we have our preferences. There is much of interest in every development of nature--much to admire, especially in the grandeur, the picturesque beauty, and sublimity of large forest trees. These things are so clearly defined in the mind of the botanist--so many excellencies does he discover in each genus, and every species of the respective families, that each succeeding description seems to place the last before every preceding one. Mankind, pretty generally, are disposed to place the Oak at the head of the vegetable kingdom, and it is crowned monarch of the forest. I was reared among the noble Pines of Maine, nestled in my cradle beneath their giant forms, and often has the sighing wind made music that has calmed me to repose as it gently played through their tasseled boughs. Often have I been filled with awe as I gazed upon their massive trunks and raised my eye to their cloud-swept tops. When a child, even, I could never read the following eulogy on the Oak without a fit of jealousy: "The Oak for grandeur, strength, and noble size Excels all trees which in the forest grow." Of the truth of this sentiment I could never feel persuaded; in fact, in only one particular is this true. In strength the Oak excels, but in towering grandeur and massive diameter the Pine far exceeds the Oak, and indeed all other North American trees. Properly there are but three species of the Pine. 1. The White Pine. 2. Pitch Pine. 3. The Norway, or Red Pine, as it is sometimes called.[5] The Red Pine is remarkable for its tall trunk; it sometimes rises eighty feet before it puts out a limb. I recollect cutting one on the Mattawamkeag River, which disembogues into the Penobscot, eighty-two feet before reaching a limb. They are sometimes found one hundred feet in height and four feet in diameter.