The Forest and Life 3 



So it has been or will be of every large animal that lives 

 in the open. The mice and shrews may survive in the 

 grasses of the marsh. That to them is a forest and offers 

 them the same protection. The badgers and gophers 

 take refuge underground ; but no animal can live on the 

 open plain without some form of shelter. 



The shelter which all animals need is supplied by the 

 forest. Under the protecting canopy of the trees is a world 

 teeming with life. You only need to sit down hidden 

 by some sheltering bough and watch. With such a stage 

 spread before you the drama will go on. First the squirrels 

 will appear. They are the most restless and most fearless. 

 They scamper here and there in open day because their 

 greatest enemies hunt by night. Then the wood mice come, 

 timid, secretive and silent, yet each busy with his affairs 

 and intensely interested in the simple matters which 

 make up his life. No act is trivial which helps a living 

 being to get its food or shelter or to provide for the rearing 

 of its young. Next comes a hare in hot haste, closely 

 followed by a red fox; or perhaps a red deer comes close 

 enough to scent you, and you see his white flag and hear the 

 tip tip as his feet lightly touch the ground no other 

 sound though he threads his way through a maze of brush. 



So the stream of life goes on beneath the covering of 

 trees and night brings no cessation. Other actors appear. 

 More of tragedy is enacted as the lynx and the gray wolf 

 go out to kill, that they and theirs may live. But all 

 alike depend upon, and are screened and sheltered by the 

 forest roof. Scenes of bloody murder or deadly conflict 



