habitation, man found what we are pleased to call the virgin forest a pro- 

 duct of long-continued evolutionary changes occupying most, if not all. 

 the dry land, and ever intent upon extending its realm. 



I may not leave this prehistoric story of the battle of the forest with- 

 out giving some historic evidences of its truth. Paleobotanists have un- 

 earthed the remnants of the circtimpolar flora which give evidence that it 

 resembled that of the present tropic and semi-tropic countries ; they have 

 also shown that Sequoias, Magnolias, Liquidambars and Hickories existed 

 in Europe and on our continent in regions where they are now extinct. We 

 have also evidences of the repeated successes and reverses of the forest in 

 its attempt to establsh itself through long geologic transformations. 



One of the most interesting evidences of these vicissitudes in the 

 struggles of the forest to establish itself is presented in a section of Ame- 

 thyst Mountain in the Yellowstone Park, which exhibits the remains of 15 

 forest growths, one above the other, buried in the lava. Again and again 

 subduing the inhospitable excoriations, again and again the forest had to 

 yield to superior force. The face of the mountain includes over 2,000 feet 

 of strata resting upon granite. The trees, or rather parts of them, stand 

 upright and lie prostrate in good preservation, 40 to 50 feet in length, and 

 not a few as much as 5 and G feet in diameter. ( Note the ancient arid 

 modern vegetation in company.) The largest, uncovered by the action of 

 water and soil movement, rising 12 feet above the enclosing strata, is 10 

 feet in diameter, and belongs to the Sequoia tribe. 



Among these petrified witnesses of former forest glory, Magnolias. 

 Oaks, Tulip trees, Sassafras, Linden, Ash, have been identified, accom- 

 panying the Sequoias, while now only the hardiest growth of pines and 

 spruces find a congenial climate here. 



Reversals of this kind are taking place even in our own time, before 

 our very eyes. In Alaska, and elsewhere, glaciers carry large masses of 

 soil and rock, depositing it in moraines at lower levels. On these mor- 

 aines vegetation soon establishes itself, and finally the forest grows to the 

 very edge, nay, upon the very back of the mighty icesheet. But as the ice 

 river ebbs and flows, recedes and pushes forward, the existence of the for- 

 est cover is precarious and of temporary duration sooner or later it will 

 be pushed over by the moving ice and buried by the moraine material. 

 Again receding, the glacier river carrying off the melted ice in a rapid 

 stream, this stream cutting through the moraine, may uncover the buried 

 forest, as is the case near the celebrated Muir glacier, exhibiting to us a bit 

 of the earth's history and of the methods of making it, and the forces at 

 work in past eras. 



Just as the forest formed and spread thus during the course of ages. 

 so does it form and spread to-day, unless man, driven by tine increasing 

 needs of existence, checks its progress and reduces its area by the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. This natural extension of the forest-cover takes place 



