THE PKIMITIVE FOREST. 5 



crowded growth of the northern cypress, or white cedar. 

 These evergreen swamps would constitute the darkest 

 ground of the picture. The deep alluvial tracts would 

 be known by the deciduous character of their woods 

 and their lighter and brighter verdure, and the dry, 

 sandy and diluvial plains and the gravelly hills and 

 eminences by their white birches and tremulous poplars, 

 their stunted pitch-pines and dwarfish junipers. For a 

 century past the woods have been cleared mostly from the 

 alluvial tracts ; and the oaks, the hickories, the chestnuts, 

 and other hard-wood trees, the primitive occupants of the 

 rich and deep soils, have been succeeded in great measure 

 by trees of softer wood, that originally grew on inferior 

 land. The wooded aspect of the country cannot any 

 longer be considered, as formerly, a good geological chart, 

 except in some parts of Maine and the adjoining British 

 Provinces. 



One of the conditions most remarkable in a primitive 

 forest is the universal dampness of the ground. The 

 second growth of timber, especially if the surface were 

 entirely cleared, stands upon a drier foundation. This 

 greater dryness is caused by the absence of those vast 

 accumulations of vegetable debris that rested on the 

 ground before it was disturbed. A greater evaporation 

 also takes place under the second growth, because the 

 trees are of inferior size and stand more widely apart. 

 Another character of a primitive forest is the crowded 

 assemblage of trees and their undergrowth, causing great 

 difficulty in traversing it. Innumerable straggling vines, 

 many of them covered with thorns, like the green-brier, 

 intercept our way. Immense trunks of trees, prostrated 

 by hurricanes, lie in our path, and beds of moss of ex- 

 treme thickness cover a great part of the surface, satu^ 

 rated with moisture. The trees are also covered with 

 mosses, generated by the shade and dampness ; and woody 



