14 BULLKTIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



house, ^vhich in its day merely served the purpose of 

 shelter ? The last or frontier settlement is on the verge 

 of civilization, and we are standing before the last hut 

 before phmging into the forest. And this hut is ty})ical 

 of a dozen that we have seen in the last few miles. Not 

 a vestige of a tree or shrub around the bare and comfort- 

 less hovel ; a half starved geranium in the only window 

 that fronted the roadway ; a group of sliy children that 

 refused our advances and scattered to the rear of the 

 house on our approach ; a dog that growled sullen 

 defiance and betook himself to the door where he showed 

 his gleaming teeth in a very unmistakable way. 



It is not to be wondered at that we bade good-bye to 

 civilization (?) on that hot eTuly day, and betook ourselves 

 to the grateful shade of the forest with the liveliest relief 

 and satisfaction. A great city is not the only place 

 where we meet with extremes of wealth and poverty, of 

 high life and low life. As we entered the woods and 

 saw those aristocratic elms and maples and pines, we 

 were impressed with their magnihcence, and could not 

 help thinking that if those poor settlers, when they 

 carved homes for themselves in the wilderness had 

 thought that they had other wants to satisfy than mere 

 physical wants, they would have left standing one or 

 two lordly forest trees and reared their humble roofs 

 under their grateful shade. It seems to me that the 

 Giver of all blessings would look down upon such a 

 habitation as that and pronounce it " good." How much 

 better is man, both physically and intellectually, with 

 trees as neighbours and companions, beneath whose cool 

 shade he can rest himself and smoke his pipe in content- 

 ment as he surveys his growing acres, and thank God 

 for them all. 



