OAK-TREE. 83 



sounded feebly from a time-worn and hollow trunk, grey 

 with pendent lichens. 



Centuries have come and gone, the weak voice said, since 

 a joyous, light-hearted squirrel, bounding in his gladness, 

 dropped an acorn on this huge mass of stone. The acorn 

 fell by chance into a fissure, around which had grown crus- 

 taceous lichens and bright mosses, leaving, in their decay 

 and renovation, deposits of vegetable mould ; and, thus 

 nestling, the small acorn, striking his tiny roots downwards, 

 held up his small leaves to the loving influence of rain and 

 wind, till I arose from his midst, a sapling, alone upon 

 the rock. But years passed on, and numerous trees, 

 upspringing from my acorns, found their homes around me; 

 and thus, on either side this mighty torrent, huge masses 

 of granite rock, with their steep hollows of crumbling soil, 

 are clothed with an aged wood, extending far as the eye 

 can reach, and sweeping over hill and dale into the adjacent 

 country. This wood has been a goodly hunting-place : 

 animals of all kinds resorted hither, the deer, the elk, 



