NATURE'S FIRST PAPER 3IAKERS. 427 



the great tree trunks, at whose roots heaps of chippiiigs 

 he, showing the industry of the busy woodworkers 

 within. The Fuscous ants [formica fusca) here delivered 

 from the taint of slavei-y to tlieir Sanguine or Shining 

 Masters, take on an air of forest freedom and build 

 broad mounds fearless of remark instead of skulking 

 within hidden dens ; beetles, crickets and numberless 

 other insects push a thousand trails under the fallen 

 leaves and branches. 



Here Arachne has gathei'ed many children as into 

 a safe nursery. The Avoods swarm with spiders, 

 whose webs of varied sorts and sizes hang from limbs, 

 stretch over the water, overlace roots, rocks, crevices, 

 hollow trunks, leaves and logs, and extend from branch 

 to branch across every opening, flapping their sticky 

 filaments in the passer's face. How often have I gone 

 to this resort, when anxious to collect a specimen or 

 verify or complete a study of aranead habits, confi- 

 dent that somewhere in this narrow belt of forest my 

 search would be rewarded ! 



At the point where the wagon trail leaves the woods 

 the creek runs close along the mill road, then gradu- 

 ally hugs the opposite hillside, leaving a narrow strip 

 of flatland. It is bordered by a fine row of trees 

 which overhang the water. The proprietor has an 

 admirable peculiarity for an American. Some kind 

 genius has written deeply upon the fleshy tablets of his 

 heart the well known plea, " Woodman spare that 

 tree !" — written so deeply, that he will never allow 

 one tree to be cut down if there is any possiI)le way to 



