FOREST SWAMPS AND WINDFALLS. 131 



to double the distance upon a smooth hard road. There 

 are also certain sections of the forest, which must be 

 passed through occasionally, which may fairly claim 

 to be almost impenetrable these are densely wooded 

 swamps, with a matted thicket of dwarf alders, willows, 

 and shrubs, of a water-loving character and areas 

 which have been devastated by forest fires a few years 

 previously, where there are not only the old stumps 

 and fallen sticks to contend with, but also a thick 

 growth of young trees and shrubs, which shoot up 

 with almost magical rapidity in such places. 



But the worst of all is a " windfall " or track, where 

 a hurricane has passed through the forest, cutting at 

 times a regular lane through the trees. These places 

 may vary from a few yards to one or more miles 

 across, in which nearly every tree is uprooted, and 

 thrown down one on top of another in the wildest 

 confusion. Sometimes spots of this kind are found 

 which are absolutely, not merely figuratively speaking, 

 impassable that is to say it might take a man an 

 hour to advance a hundred yards, by a process of 

 severe gymnastic exercises, climbing over one tree, and 

 creeping under another, while at intervals he may be 

 forced to work his way along a slippery trunk twenty 

 feet or more above the level of the ground, where a 

 false step might entail serious consequences. But the 

 chaos that prevails in such localities must be seen to 

 be fully understood, for there are often trees by the 

 hundred, piled one on the top of the other, whose 

 interlaced branches and trunks form an " abatis " or 

 rampart, through which neither man nor beast can 

 pass, and you must go over them if you are to pass 

 at all. 



