But the immense size of the cones of the Sugar Pine--from fifteen to twenty inches in length--and those of the Jeffrey variety of the Yellow Pine compel him to adopt a quite different method.

He cuts them off without attempting to hold them, then goes down and drags them from where they have chanced to fall up to the bare, swelling ground around the instep of the tree, where he demolishes them in the same methodical way, beginning at the bottom and following the scale-spirals to the top.
[Illustration: SEEDS, WINGS, AND SCALE OF SUGAR PINE.

(NAT.

SIZE.)] From a single Sugar Pine cone he gets from two to four hundred seeds about half the size of a hazel-nut, so that in a few minutes he can procure enough to last a week.

He seems, however, to prefer those of the two Silver First above all others; perhaps because they are most easily obtained, as the scales drop off when ripe without needing to be cut.
Both species are filled with an exceedingly pungent, aromatic oil, which spices all his flesh, and is of itself sufficient to account for his lightning energy.
You may easily know this little workman by his chips.