CHAPTER X 



THE AMERICAN FORESTS 



The forests of America, however slighted by 

 man, must have been a great delight to God ; 

 for they were the best he ever planted. The 

 whole continent was a garden, and from the be- 

 ginning 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 fore- 

 thought, lifted into the light, submerged and 

 warmed over and over again, pressed and crum- 

 pled into folds and ridges, mountains, and hills, 

 subsoiled with heaving volcanic fires, ploughed 

 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 fullness of time 

 it was planted in groves, and belts, and broad, 

 exuberant, mantling 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 des- 

 erts were outspread in the middle of it, mossy 



