242 FELLING MAHOGANY. 



river. The logs are then separated and formed into 

 large rafts, in which state they are guided to the 

 timber wharfs of the proprietors, where they are 

 taken out of the water, and such parts as were split 

 or rent in being dashed by the current against the 

 rocks are sawed off; and the mahogany when thus 

 prepared is ready for shipping. - 



Those deep forests, where grow the mahogany, 

 the bullet tree, and iron-wood, the red wood and 

 sapodilla, are the favourite resorts of the heron, that 

 majestic bird which seems in unison with the wildest 

 solitudes of nature. 



Far up some brook's still course, whose current mines 



The forest's blackened roots, and whose green marge 



Is seldom visited by human foot 



The lonely heron sits, and harshly breaks 



The sabbath-silence of the wilderness : 



And you may find her by some reedy pool, 



Or brooding gloomily on the time-stained rock, 



Beside some misty and far-reaching lake. 



Most awful is thy deep and heavy boom, 



Gray watcher of the waters ! Thou art king 



Of the blue lake : and all the winged kind 



Do fear the echo of thy angry cry. 



How bright thy savage eye ! Thou lookest down 



And see'st the shining fishes as they glide : 



And poising thy gray wing, thy glossy beak 



Swift as an arrow strikes its roving prey. 



Ofttimes I see thee through the curling mist, 



Dart like a spectre of the night, and hear 



Thy strange bewildering call, like the wild scream 



Of one whose life is perishing in the sea. 



M'LELLAN. 



