256 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



how sublime they are in their power and 

 volume ! To the uninitiated and the timid 

 they may have terrors, but to the hunter 

 and the backwoodsman the "big timber " is an 

 earthly paradise. There nature is supreme 

 and man is only a cipher ; there heat, light, 

 and moisture work their pleasure undisturbed. 

 Within the pale of civilization, upon meadow, 

 field, and hill-side, one can never feel that nat- 

 ure has done justice to itself or its growths. 

 The woods upon our Eastern hills have all been 

 raised upon the bottle. Where the Great 

 Mother is unthwarted in her ways, she rears a 

 brood of giants. 



The botanist has classed, ordered, sectioned, 

 and specied the different trees, and christened 

 each with a Latinized name ; but I have no 

 thought of following his scientific arrangement 

 nor of cataloguing or classifying the different 

 varieties of trees. My task has to do with 

 surface appearances. Moreover, the general 

 character of a tree is revealed by its form, 

 color, or texture ; and it may be assumed that 

 the average person recognizes it by these feat- 

 ures rather than by reducing it to botanical 

 class and species. How much depends upon 

 outline, hue, and surface, and what distin- 



