44 Proofs of the Natural Rotation 



age, or had been thrown down by hurricanes, and had 

 rotted away from the roots of the trees." 



"The ckimps of oak and hemlock are generally in the 

 midst of, or surrounded by large bodies of beech and 

 sugar maple lands, mixed with some ash, and a few 

 wild cherry and hemlock trees. In some paits of the 

 country, the prevailing timber is still hemlock, on the 

 sides of hills, and along streams." 



"From the circumstance of the great size of all the oak 

 trees growing in the spots noted above, it appears to 

 me, that most of the high countrj^, including the head 

 waters of the Delaware, Allegheny and Chenesee rivers, 

 was originally an oak countr^^ The hemlock appears 

 to have succeeded the oak, for there is still a consider- 

 able quantity of that timber o^'er the face of the country, 

 but from the number of logs of it lying on the ground, 

 and its visible decline, I think the beech, sugar maple 

 &c. succeeded the hemlock, as they are the prevailing 

 timber at present. The timber that appears to me will 

 take place of all others in the country before mentioned, 

 is the white ash and wild cherry, for I observed that 

 all places where the woods have been blown down by 

 hurricanes for a number of years back, the young 

 growth consists principally of those two kinds of trees, 

 and the largest saplins of them which I saw, were six 

 to nine inches diameter. I suppose that the appearance 

 of the latter trees commenced between twenty and thirty 

 years back, counting from 1794 or 1795. There are 

 several of those wind falls, in the remote parts of Penn- 

 sylvania, and New York near the line dividing the two 

 States; they are generally 1-8, rarely 3-4 of a mile wide, 

 and several miles long, ?.nd in every one that I saw, and 



