THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 209 



Elsewhere, again, we find a lengthy train of pioneers 

 regularly posted, and vanishing in the distance ; all, an- 

 imated with feverish activity, are digging up the soil, and 

 making, for many leagues, long trenches of circumvallation, 

 which follow the roads and serve to isolate the different dis- 

 tricts of the forest from one another. 



Or if the excursion be made by night, another spectacle 

 awaits us. The whole forest seems on fire. In every part 

 are burning great trees, erect and isolated, like huge threat- 

 ening torches, the flame of which rises to the clouds and 

 casts a baleful glare on all around. A few foresters, stand- 

 ing in silence, contemplate the progress of the conflagration 

 and watch its ravages. Lastly, at other times, as a final re- 

 source, the entire forest is given up a prey to the flames, 

 and whirlwinds of fire, menacing and dreadful, spread on 

 every side ; a woody region, lately fertile, is entirely de- 

 voured by fire, and only an immense mountain of charcoal 

 and ashes remains of all this mass of wealth. 



We ask against what formidable enemy such an army of 

 men has been directed. Whom are they going to attack 

 with their rods, which they brandish on all sides ? What 

 redoubtable aggressors are the others attempting to stay 

 the march of, by means of the long trenches they are dig- 

 ging ? Why these frightful fires in the middle of the night ? 

 Why this general conflagration ? 



This formidable enemy is at times only a single insect, 

 but it threatens everything with its destructive tooth, and 

 men prefer decimating the forest to losing it entirely. 



One is struck dumb with amazement at seeing so many 

 and so vigorous efforts directed solely against the progeny 



14 



