THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 21 



children of the forest. For swiftness and endurance; 

 for mystery and mysticism, the Indians venerated pas- 

 senger pigeons, above all visible and animate beings. 



Their numbers fell off approximately, at the rate 

 of ten millions each year, until, at last, only one great 

 city existed, and that gathered in Potter county, Penn- 

 sylvania, in 1886, centered on Pine Creek, the Tiadagh- 

 ton of. the romantic Indian legends. Jim Jacobs, the 

 Seneca bear hunter, was recognized as he leturned 

 from the celebrated last stand of the Passenger 

 Pigeons. In sorrow his shade then slept with the an- 

 cients. 



The story has been told; why repeat it? Men 

 gathered together ; from the tides of the sea to the 

 great prairies they came. All night guns boomed 

 among the trees. The moon was red in the clouds of 

 powder-smoke that arose. The Indian hung his head 

 in anguish ; then crept away to his fate. Next da> 

 no pigeons remained — whither? 



Restoring the Forest — Vision and Prophecy 



As written in 1904, after reviewing the region, in 

 the chapters in ''The History of the Lumber Industry 

 in Atmerica," by John C. French, w^e find the follow- 

 ing: 



*'No efifort has been made to preserve or renew the 

 forests of the Allegheny valley, and the streams have 

 shrunk to mere creeks or dry beds of sand and gravel 



