ORGANIZATION OF LAND COMMUNITIES 49 



between the time of the melting of snows and 

 the opening of the forest leaves; pepper and salt, 

 trilliums, dutchman's breeches and particularly 

 hepaticas were especially abundant. Later in 

 the summer when the forest was in full leaf, there 

 were few herbs to be found growing through the 

 heavy covering of dead and decaying leaves. 



We know much concerning the animal popula- 

 tion of this almost departed forest, but there were 

 many relationships, knowledge of which can only 

 be pieced together. Earthworms were the char- 

 acteristic animals of the soil. Ants and a variety 

 of beetles and their larvae, together with a multi- 

 tude of other insects, lived in the decaying wood 

 and helped hasten its transformation into forest 

 mould. Many other animals including bears, 

 and gray foxes, burrowed underground for their 

 dens and white-footed mice flourished in tunnels 

 just below or through the leaves in summer and 

 through the snow in winter. 



Over this old forest floor ranged the Virginia 

 deer and the wapiti or elk; the bison, later so 

 closely associated with the western plains, orig- 

 inally had a Pennsylvanian race that ranged 

 through much of this forest. Timber wolves, 

 panthers and wild-cats were also present, and 

 beaver and muskrats congregated about the 

 waterways. Squirrels were the characteristic ani- 



