BACK-KIT EIVEB. 83 



forward on its everlasting flow. The same scenery, and the 

 same voices are seen and heard along its banks now as then; 

 and, while man, in his restlessness, has changed almost 

 everything else, the Kackett and the things that pertained 

 to it when the earth was yonng, remain unchanged. Bnt 

 this will not be so long. Civilization is pushing its way 

 even towards this wild and, for all agricultural purposes, 

 sterile region, and before many years even the Rackett will 

 be within its ever-extending circle. When that time shall 

 have arrived, where shall we go to find the woods, the wild 

 things, the old forests, and hear the sounds which belong 

 to nature in its primeval state ? Whither shall we flee from 

 civilization, to take off the harness and be free, for a season, 

 from the restraints, the conventionalities of society, and 

 rest from the hard struggles, the cares and toils, the strifes 

 and competitions of life ? Had I my way, I would mark out 

 a circle of a hundred miles hi diameter, and throw around it 

 the protecting segis of the constitution. I would make it a 

 forest forever. It should be a misdemeanor to chop down a 

 tree, and a felony to clear an acre within its boundaries. 

 The old woods should stand here always as God made 

 them, growing on until the earthworm ate away their roots, 

 and the strong winds hurled them to the ground, and new 

 woods should be permitted to supply the place of the old so 

 long as the earth remained. There is room enough for 

 civilization in regions better fitted for it. It has no business 

 among these mountains, these rivers and lakes, these gigan- 

 tic boulders, these tangled valleys and dark mountain gorges. 



