140 IN THE GREAT PINE FOREST. 



then the dense canopy of pine boughs interlacing over- 

 head, so far excludes the light that it keeps the ground 

 .below in such situations pretty well clear of vegetation ; 

 so that vistas of Nature's architecture may frequently 

 be seen, whose solemn simplicity and majesty almost 

 exactly represents the aisle of some great cathedral. 

 The whole effect in its spacious grandeur, its air of 

 antiquity, its eternal tranquillity and silence is that of 

 some enormous temple, dedicated to the worship of the 

 Supreme Being. The forest floor in some of these 

 places consists of an accumulation of pine needles, the 

 deposit of centuries, which has annually fallen from 

 the crowns of the monarchs of the woods above ; upon 

 which the human foot leaves its impress almost as upon 

 the mould of a garden bed, while at the same time it is 

 as soft and springy as a well-stuffed sofa, and almost 

 as slippery as so much ice : this the traveller will very 

 soon discover, should the ground beneath his feet have 

 a rapid slope. 



Indeed there is nothing more difficult to walk upon 

 than a steep place carpeted with pine needles the feet 

 fly from under a man exactly as if he were upon ice. 



When we say that such spots as these are to be 

 found, the reader, we trust, will not misunderstand us, 

 and suppose that such is the general aspect of these 

 forests; for the greater part of them is usually filled 

 with underwood of some kind, especially when there 

 is a break in the canopy of foliage overhead ; the ground 

 is then often covered with a magnificent growth of 

 ferns, sometimes as high as or higher than a man's head, 

 very often of a variety resembling our well-known 

 male fern ; or at other places it is obstructed by fallen 

 timber, or underwood of different kinds, which interrupts 



