THE DAEK PLAIlsTS 



CONTAINING MY PIRST IMPEBSSIONS OF A FOREST. 



In our early days, when all the scenes about us are full 

 of mysteries, and even the adjoining country is an un- 

 explored region, we feel the liveliest impressions from 

 nature and our own imagination. Those who pass their 

 childhood in the woods, and become acquainted with their 

 inconveniences and their dangers, learn to regard them as 

 something to be avoided. The Western pioneer destroys 

 immense tracts of forest to make room for agricul- 

 ture and space for his buildings. The inhabitant of the 

 town, on the contrary, sees the woods only on occasional 

 visits, for pleasure or recreation, and acquires a romantic 

 affection for them and their scenes, unfelt by the son of 

 the pioneer or the forester. The earliest period of my life 

 was passed in a village some miles distant from an exten- 

 sive wood, which was associated in my mind with many 

 interesting objects, from the infrequency of my visits. 

 It was at a very early age, and when I first began to 

 feel some interest in natural objects beyond my own 

 home, that I heard my mother describe the " Dark Plains," 

 a spacious tract of sandy country, covered with a primi- 

 tive growth of pines and hemlocks, such as are now seen 

 only ia the solitudes of Canada and the northern part of 

 Maine. 



The very name of this wooded region is highly signifi- 

 cant and poetical, and far removed from the disagreeable 

 character of names vulgarly given to remarkable places. 

 What eccentric person, among the unpoetic society of 



