432 FOREST CONSERVATORIES. 



Their habits, therefore, could be watehed more carefully 

 and minutely than in other wooded places, where they 

 are terrified by the fowler, who causes them to look on 

 man as their natural enemy. In a few years we should 

 here witness scenes which have never before been exhib- 

 ited on any magnificent scale. Visitors, not being allowed 

 to shoot or entrap any living things in these grounds, 

 would amuse themselves by making them their pets. It 

 may be added that the habits of those who visit them 

 would infuse a regard for the lives of these innocent crea- 

 tures into the whole population, who would thenceforth 

 afford them better protection in private grounds. 



Here might be viewed assemblages of natural objects 

 seldom found associated in other places; for though 

 tillage is to be excluded, except so much as the object of 

 the establishment requires, all the wild plants of every 

 tribe and family, as well as the small animals indigenous 

 to that region, would be gradually introduced. The stu- 

 dent of natural history would find in this place many 

 species now scattered widely and sparsely over the coun- 

 try, in localities which are difficult to be visited or dis- 

 covered. He would be rewarded with the sight of species 

 that have been absent from that region since the earliest 

 clearing had been made of the primitive forest. Hare 

 birds would sing there the first notes they had warbled in 

 that region since the white man's cottage has taken the 

 place of the Indian wigwam. 



The expenses of such an establishment would not be 

 great after the original purchase of the land, as the only 

 improvements required or permitted would be the resto- 

 ration of trees to certain vacant parts of the land, and the 

 construction of a few paths to render the grounds con- 

 veniently accessible. These paths should not be grav- 

 elled. I would leave them to be overgrown by native 

 herbs and grasses, and would take no further care of them, 



