THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 153 



The water-power mills, of transitory efficiency, were 

 augmented or supplanted l)y the more stable and re- 

 liable steam engine, and circular or rotary saws re- 

 placed the mulay and the sash-saw varieties. The hum 

 of industry broke over the quiet valleys and the hills 

 re-echoed with steam-whistle music, where, lately, had 

 been heard only the solitary cry of the panther, the 

 howling of the wolves, hooting of owls, or the hunter's 

 rifle tl^at l^roke the forest stillness. 



Forest fires swept over the slashings and consumed 

 the beech trees and the other hardwoods. The ani- 

 mals fled and the pigeons came no more. The birds 

 languished and the larvae of millers and bugs grew 

 fat upon hemlocks, and the other trees. Cyclones laid 

 the forest flat and the summer sun dried up the moun- 

 tain brooks, until the trout abandoned them. The 

 hunters and fishermen no more sought their prey in the 

 forests ; but degenerated in the softness of the dissi- 

 pating sports they patronized. The elements and the 

 flight of Time, augmented by the wastefulness of 

 man, narrowed the forest, from year to year, until the 

 denuded hills arose, in the grimness of desolation, like 

 spectres of a diseased imagination, to rebuke a wan- 

 ton generation. 



But there are compensating facts to comfort the 

 guilty despoilers. They sought a livelihood in har- 

 vesting the ripe crop of hemlock, that Nature had 

 planted and tended, against the time of need, and in 

 developing our great nation, to add its wealth to that 



