THE AMERICAN FORESTS 165 



THE AMERICAN FORESTS* 



BY JOHN MUIR 



THE forests of America, however slighted by man, 

 must have been a great delight to God; for they were 

 the best He had ever planted. The whole continent 

 was a garden, and from the beginning it seemed 

 to be favored above all the other wild parks and 

 gardens of the globe. To prepare the ground, it 

 was rolled and sifted in seas with infinite loving 

 deliberation and forethought, lifted into the light, 

 submerged and warmed over and over again, pressed 

 and crumpled into folds and ridges, mountains and 

 hills, subsoiled with heaving volcanic fires, plowed 

 and ground and sculptured into scenery and soil 

 with glaciers and rivers every feature growing 

 and changing from beauty to beauty, higher and 

 higher. And in the fulness of time it was planted 

 in groves, and belts, and broad, exuberant, mant- 

 ling forests, with the largest, most varied, most 

 fruitful, and most beautiful trees in the world. 

 Bright seas made its border with wave embroidery 

 and icebergs; gray deserts were outspread in the 

 middle of it, mossy tundras on the north, savannas 

 on the south, and blooming prairies and plains; 

 while lakes and rivers shone through all the vast 

 forests and openings, and happy birds and beasts 



* By permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



