234 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



my subject in the eedars, I hasten to say that these great 

 swamps are simply the banks of the rivers and streams 

 which run through the pine-barrens ; so I have a legiti- 

 mate right to wander on. The banks sometimes extend 

 a mile or two beyond the edge of the stream, and are 

 not very picturesque nor generally attractive. But 

 when it is asserted that there is nothing of interest con- 

 nected with them, it only shows how little some people 

 can manage to see. The streams themselves are not 

 devoid of interest. Their red waters are constantly 

 undermining the trees, causing thein to fall, when they 

 do not decay, and the falling trees are slowly and con- 

 tinuously changing the bed of the streams. How far 

 below the surface they extend I do not know, but they 

 are found to a considerable depth, in an excellent state 

 of preservation. They are often extricated; and made 

 into shingles and other useful things, which are said to 

 be much more durable than when mad£ from trees 

 which have been cut for such purposes. 



If the geologist did not tell us that the structure of 

 the State of New Jersey forbids the possibility of ever* 

 finding coal-mines within its borders, we might be dis- 

 posed to think that we had not wholly emerged from 

 the carboniferous era, and that ages hence coal would 

 be found where these cedars now stand. The coal 

 might even have the imprint of the great ferns which 

 grow among the cedars, and earth's inhabitants might 

 ponder over the impress of these* strange ferns. This 

 thought was suggested on seeing a log which had been 



