VIII 

 THE CONVICT TRAIL 



I AM thinking of a very wonderful thing and 

 words come laggardly. For it is a thing which 

 more easily rests quietly in the deep pool of 

 memory than stirred up and crystalized into 

 words and phrases. It is of the making of a 

 new trail, of the need and the planning and 

 the achievement, of the immediate effects and 

 the possible consequences. For the effects be- 

 came manifest at once, myriad, unexpected, 

 some sinister, others altogether thrilling and 

 wholly delightful to the soul of a naturalist. 

 And now, many months after, they are still 

 spreading, like a forest fire which has passed 

 beyond control. Only in this case the land was 

 no worse and untold numbers of creatures were 

 better off because of our new trail. 



Of the still more distant consequences I can- 

 not write, for the book of the future is tightly 

 sealed. But we may recall that a trail once 



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