1S38] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



519 



much of ihe winter snow lodges on their branches, 

 and ihiit which finds a pussage to the eartli 

 seems lo iiave l)ecii deprived of iiil iis native pu- 

 rity in thegluoni ol' llie recesses where it reposes. 

 Ad regarils ihe loneliness and melancholy ol' these 

 regions, summer and winter are nearly aliUe ; lor 

 during the season that rejoices all other parts of 

 the ci-eation, no sunnnerbird resorts lo the pine- 

 clad legions to build its solitary nest, or chant Us j 

 simple song of happiness and love. Scarcely a 

 busy woodpecker is to be heard, (seeing one is 

 out of the question) ; and as ibr squirrels, they 

 fini! no business there ; except in their migratory 

 excursions instinct should happen to guide tiiem 

 through some section of a pine tbrest. The bird 

 most couunonly Ibund there, is the New England 

 parlriilge, or the Virginia pheasant ; but even 

 these are scarcer than ihey are in the more cheer- 

 lul " green woods" of various parts of the coun- 

 try. It may be observed, that the pine forests are 

 considerably taller than any of the rest ; |)robably 

 160 Itiet would be below their average height ; 

 and although so very tall, the. trees are seldom^ 

 more than two feet in diameter, in consequence of 

 their growing in such close vicinity. In the green, 

 or summer woods, you Irequently (all in with a 

 few straggling pine trees, growing up amongst 

 (he light green foliage lo the height ol" 60 or 

 70 Itietabove alllhesurroundingforesttreesjstand- 

 ing like sentinels set to watch over all the silent 

 wilderness. And when one has an opportunity 

 of looking down upon the surrounding woods 

 from some lofty and abrupt eminence, the whole 

 country appears covered with brushwood or shrub- 

 beiy, with here and there a pine tree of moderate 

 •size, sliooting up h'om the midst of it. The white 

 pine forests are the most general, as well as ex- 

 tensive, in the northern regions of America. 



The cedar-woods are commonly confined to 

 swamps; but they occasionally intervene on 

 mountain ridges, where the soil is miserably poor: 

 and, the trees attaining but a small size, such si- 

 tuations are called cedar-barrens. There are also 

 oak, as well as pine barrens, in various parts of 

 the country. The pine woods, as already stated, 

 are dark and gloomy ; but the cedar-swamps are 

 still more dismal. Although they are seldom of 

 great extent, to be under the necessity of travers- 

 ing a few miles of these swamps is no ordinary un- 

 dertaking ; for, in many situations, the cedars 

 grow so close to each other, that there is barely 

 space lor a man's body to squeeze through be- 

 tween them. And; taking into the account the 

 nature of their dark-green IbSiage, some idea may 

 be formed of the gloom and melancholy vvliich 

 tor ever pervade the cedar swamps. Some of 

 them are of so boggy a nature, that it is with ex- 

 treme difficulty they are explored by man ; and 

 as the heavens are entirely shut out, the compass 

 is absolutely necessary to direct the wanderer in 

 the right way ; and even this can hardly be trusted 

 to as a sure guide, for there is not suificient light 

 upon all occasions to enable him to ascertain the 

 quarter to which the needle points. One of the 

 most extensive cedar-swamps known at present, 

 is the Dismal Swamp, in Virginia; the length ot 

 which is upwards of thirty miles. In the interior 

 of Canada, these swamps abound more than they 

 do in any other section of the country with which 

 I am acquainted ; and notwithstanding the conti- 

 guous lands may be of the very best quality ol 



soil, at the present day those swamps are utterly 

 wnrihless. It is mostly the while cedar that 

 grows in thom, but the trees do not attain a great 

 elevation, neither are they bulky, since very few 

 of ihem exceed twelve or filieen inches in diame- 

 ter. Were other sorts of limber more scan;e, 

 white cedar would be in srcater demand : at pre- 

 sent, where it can be got lo market at a moderate 

 ex|)ense, ii is used for laths, staves, and shin^'les. 

 There is, if possible, a smaller porlion of animal 

 existence in these dreary regions, than in the de- 

 solate pine woods; for ii'we except the millions of 

 mosquitoes that these swamps give birth to, 

 scarcely is there aught that " lives and breathes" 

 within the dark precincts of the cedar-woods. 



There are some remarkable natural ;)lienomena 

 in the forests of America, two or three of wliich I 

 will briefly notice; but as I have never heard 

 what I consiiler satisfactory arguments advan- 

 ced to account for their existence, 1 shall forbear 

 hazardinij any opinions of my own. In journe.y- 

 ini!: through the interior of the country, where the 

 forest has been little, or not at all, encroached upon 

 by the axe of the woodman, you will olten, after 

 travelling (or two or three clays throujxh regular 

 pine woods, suddenly and unexpectedly find your- 

 self in woods ol a perfectly distinct and dissimilar 

 character. This, in itself, is nothing extraordi- 

 nary ; but if you will take the trouble lo examine 

 a little into the matter, you will then find that 

 there is no visible natural reason for this change ; 

 since, (or all that you can discover, the soil, and all 

 that is therewith connected, is precisely of the 

 same characler and quality on both sides the line 

 which marks the chanire of timber. At other 

 times, a small and insignificant stream will form 

 the line of demarcation, but if you examine you 

 will find that there is not any change or new ar- 

 rangement in the mineral kingdom between one 

 side of the stream and the other. 'J'hese chanjTes, 

 when they do occur, are seldom of small extent, 

 (or you often find them running directly through 

 regions of country for scores or hundreds of miles, 

 every where showing the division line with a re- 

 markable distinctness. And in those chanijes it 

 's not only the leading characler of timber which 

 gives place to some other equally distinctive and 

 prevailing: but the few inferior "trees and shrubs 

 are superseded by another set of secondary trees 

 and shrubs, of a perlijctly distinct order and cha- 

 racter. Often li'om some lofty acclivil}', have I 

 stood gazinsj upon these dividing lines ol the vast 

 and wonderful limber-crops of the American pri- 

 meval forests ! when I could trace the divisions as 

 accurately and distinctly as I could in my own 

 (jrain-field, where a single furrow was the line of 

 division between a crop of full-eared wheat on 

 the one hand, and of the more plebeian oats on 

 the other. In this case, I knew the cause; tor I 

 had said there shall be wheat here, and oats there, 

 and it was so ; because the proper and necessary 

 seed was committed to the ground, and the re- 

 spective crops sprang up accordingly. 



In the new settlements, my agricultural pur- 

 suits have sometimes led me to witness changes 

 which seemed altoijether, to me, inexplicable. I 

 will mention one of the instances to which I al- 

 lude ; and havinjr related what I myself witness- 

 ed, and made a few observations respecting the 

 situation where it took place, 1 will then leave the 

 matter to be accounted for and explained by the 



