98 THE WOODS. 



diving. Every mile and every moment seemed to add 

 to the beautiful autumnal tints of the woods, the larger 

 trees everywhere lying in a damp and mossy decay, 

 while the younger growth attempted dwarfishly to con 

 ceal the ruins brought about by the reckless hands of the 

 former rovers on the soil the red men. It is one of the 

 curses of this prolific country, that a tree has no friend, 

 and that all picturesque idea, certainly for a time, must 

 yield beneath the necessity of a clearance for the pur 

 poses of cultivation. 



The Indians, or those mere savages who remain, the 

 worthless relics of the primeval' race who so aptly suc 

 ceeded to the reptiles of antediluvian worlds, in folly set 

 fire to the plains and woods for the mere purpose of 

 enjoying the passing glare, or of dancing by a fire, 

 doing to themselves an incalculable loss or injury by the 

 wholesale destruction of creatures on whom they live. 

 The white man then steps in, and by lucifer-rnatch, 

 girdling-knife, and hatchet, not from wantonness, but of 

 necessity or in wisdom, adds to temporary devastation, 

 and fells the oak and any forest-tree, that corn may 

 succeed to keep him in tobacco and whiskey, for that at 

 first is the chief aim of the frontier settler. The line of 

 railway on which I was now travelling carried me 

 through the free state of Indiana, and by newly*erected 

 huts at intervals in the woods, till all sign of habitation 

 at last became very rare, and the brilliantly tinted, 

 hushed, and beautiful woods surrounded or seemed to 

 embrace me with their sylvan arms, in the wild loveli 

 ness of which I so delighted to revel ! Continuously, 

 then, the woods for miles and miles were unbroken save 

 by the straight, trite line of hasty locomotion. With 



