2 THE DENIZENS OF AN OLD CHERRY TREE. 



disappearing, and the woodman's axe ceases not in its yearly 

 slaughter. Few, very few, of the old forest giants spread their 

 sturdy limbs, where for centuries they stood the rude shocks of 

 countless gales, and sheltered from the heat and storm our fore- 

 fathers and their herds. The owners of the soil care not about 

 replacing the famous fallen with young stock of the same race. 

 They are eager to reap in their time, so the quicker-growing spruce 

 and larch now stand where the grand old trees once lifted their 

 heads to the sky. 



If our valley has been rich in floral treasures, we can point to 

 far more ancient stores of Nature in the wonderful Oolitic coral 

 reef on which the old wood we have mentioned stands. This 

 reef extends for miles, and we have traced it on the hills which 

 form the other boundary of our valley, telling us of pre-historic 

 times, when the old ocean beat its restless waves against the coral 

 shores of this inland sea, and we can imagine our hill tops bearing 

 those curious trees and plants peculiar to that different climate 

 and epoch. Even then a few kinds of insects (chiefly Neuroptera) 

 sported over the waters, while the Ammonites floated on the sur- 

 face of the waves, and the terrible Plesiosaurus, like a gigantic 

 swan, searched for its prey on the incoming tide. 



During this changing period the rocks forming our hills were 

 deposited in seas rich with microscopic life, whose tiny chamber- 

 ed shells (Foraminifera) form a considerable portion of these vast 

 Oolitic limestone strata which yields to-day the famous building 

 freestone of this district, and the coral rag stone used for metalling 

 our roads and for building walls, in which we have admired many 

 a choice example of those wonderful organisms that once spread 

 their beautiful tentacles in the vast seas and lagoons on which the 

 eye of man never gazed ! 



" Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives, 

 Their masonry imperishable." 



To return to the present appearance of the landscape, as seen 

 from the bottom of our valley and looking towards the sources of 

 our river, we observe a hill like a promontory standing out in relief, 

 at whose base, the two streams forming the sources of the river, 

 join in one where three valleys meet, their sides ascending and 

 forming a series of hills, over which we have, in bygone days. 



