THE WOODLANDS- 

 CHAPTER i. 



FORESTS AND THEIR USES. 



FROM that remote period when Adam and his com- 

 panion walked "amongst the trees of the garden," 

 down to these latter days, men have exhibited their at- 

 tachment to trees, woods, and forests. Some of the 

 earliest rites of idolatry were performed under the 

 shelter of trees. In all the worships of the world they 

 have been an important adjunct. The sculptures of 

 India, Assyria, and Egypt, represent trees as associated 

 with religious rites ; and the aisles of our own 

 splendid cathedrals exhibit semblances of vistas of 

 stately trunks hewn in stone, the branches of which 

 meet in arches overhead. 



Religiously, poetically, historically, man is .associated 

 with forests, his first home, his first temple ; and even 

 now his natural instincts lead him, whenever the cares 

 and business of life permit of relaxation, to seek a 

 ramble in the woods as a welcome relief. To know 

 something of the multitudinous objects with which 

 the woodlands teem is a reasonable desire that ac- 

 companies his wanderings, and such a silent com- 



