31 

 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Indiana: A Centiry of Chanof^ ix the Aspects of Xatlre. By A. W. 



Butler. 



Out of the wilderness ol the jjast has c-ome our present civilization. From 

 the fauna and Hora of the wilderness-tinie proceeded the forms of life about us. 

 The progress of this century is the marvel of history. Co-extensive with this 

 progress are the changes in nature wrought by human agency. The story told by 

 the witnesses of these things is incomprehensible. To the earliest pioneer a day 

 spent in the present time would paralyze his faculties. To the student of to-day 

 placed in the wilds of a century past would his wonder be any less? We can not 

 comprehend what man iiath wrought. Within our memories, a few there have 

 been — here and there one — whose lives included the beginning of the white man's 

 activity and who, much out of place in every feeling have seen the progress of the 

 ages move by. We listen to their tales of the i)ast, but who is there who can 

 picture in his mind the natural conditions of those early days and the subsequent 

 changings? ^'ague and imperfect are our impressions if, indeed, we have any 

 conception of them 



It is probable that the first white man within the boundaries of Indiana was 

 the explorer LaSalle. His voyage was made about 1669. The earliest settlements 

 were established within the first (|uarter of the last century at Cuiatanon and 

 Vincennes. Authorities do not agree as to which was settled first or the date of 

 settlement. These were only trading posts. Their efl'ect ui)on existing conditions 

 was but small. Nor was it until the Americans began to occujjy this region at the 

 opening of this century that the old began to fade before the new. 



Over the greater part of this State were spread dense forests of tall trees — 

 heavy timber — whose limbs met and branches were so interwoven that but oc- 

 casionally could the sunlight find entrance. There was little or no undergrowth 

 in the heaviest woods, and the gloom of tiiose dense shades and it-< accompanying 

 silence were terribly oppressive. Mile upon mile, day's journey upon day's jour- 

 ney stretched those gloomy shades amid giant columns and green arches reared 

 by nature through centuries of time. The only interruptions were the beds of water- 

 courses; the i)oorer hillsides covered with underlvrush; the smaller growth of the 

 lerfs productive uplands; the site of an extensive windfall — the record of a tor- 

 nado's passage; the small area of second growth timber marking the former 

 ■clearing for some Indian catnp; the more or less extensive patches of meadow, 



