222 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



water to a port. But this is no excuse for its wanton 

 destruction; it ought to have been reserved for future 

 generations. The prosperity of a few individuals is not 

 to be weighed against the welfare of coming thousands. 

 No man should be permitted to take up thousands of 

 acres to-day because they can be spared now. There 

 is a future to consider ; and he who selfishly denudes the 

 earth to the cost of his descendants deserves to be 

 execrated. Enough : if any man were sentenced to the 

 gallows for wantonly firing a forest, I, at least, would not 

 raise a hand to save him. 



The mischief was, that a man having a few acres to 

 clear, and firing them for the purpose, often lost control 

 of the fire ; and though his neighbours assisted at " the 

 frolic," it often happened that the flames travelled many 

 miles in the unclaimed, and unallotted forest, and nobody 

 cared. In such cases the fire ranged without check until 

 it came to a watercourse of sufficient breadth to prevent 

 its passage that is, one of at least a hundred yards in 

 width ; for if there happened to be a wind blowing it 

 would carry sparks, and even sheets of flame, fully that 

 distance. 



Of the trees of these northern forests I can say little 

 but that next to beech, pine of the sort called white pine 

 here, is most abundant; then oak, and in much less 

 quantities, maple, larch, &c., with cedars, alder, and 

 jumper in the swamps. The two last cannot be called 

 timber trees, though both grow to a size to be useful for 

 certain purposes. 



On the high grounds which bound the Ohio valley 

 the forests assume quite a different character. They are 

 more open, or park like, with brushwood and grass under 

 the trees. Here there are many pretty flowers ; but you 

 will search in vain for wild flowers in the beech woods. 

 I do not remember ever seeing the smallest flower in the 

 depth of the gloomy forests. It is evident that neither 

 flowers nor weeds will flourish where they are deprived of 



