The inference was correct, and the explanation easy. The sphinx [Note
1] had been at work. The whole forest was dead.
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Note 1. _Sphinae coniferarum_. Immense swarms of insects, and
especially the larva of the above species, insinuate themselves under
the bark of the "long-leafed" (broom) pine, attack the trunk, and cause
the tree to perish in the course of a year. Extensive tracts are met
with in Florida covered solely with dead pines that have been thus
destroyed.