THE WOODS. 159 



older than this, and still sound. The hemlocks espe- 

 cially, when the growth had been very gradual, the tree 

 having been suppressed by the preponderance of shade 

 on the part of the larger giants about it, were still per- 

 fectly healthy; while the dominant trees surrounding, 

 which had, on account of their unhindered enjoyment 

 of light, realized a much greater height and a much 

 wider diameter increase, had either begun to decay 

 after their maturity had come, or, their overtopping 

 branches having been caught in the winds, had been 

 blown down to make room for others younger. But 

 there it is, the record of the years, in the logs. There 

 they have stood for hundreds of years, these woody 

 organisms, while generation after generation of men, 

 from the Indian to the pioneer, and from the settler 

 to the manufacturer, have passed beneath their shelter- 

 ing roof and made use of the best of them. Behold 

 them in their august majesty, as they sway, and sway — 

 the trees ! — those serried, furrowed, imposing trunks, 

 with their enormous waves of tossing, billowy green ! 

 I have counted the rings of trees which were here, and 

 were of fair size, when Columbus first came to the New 

 World, and the sequoias of the West are as old as the 

 pyramids and have seen in their wild forest life the 

 whole history of the Christian era. 



Bryant's lines in "A Forest Hymn" have come to 

 my thought. Let us read them : 



" My heart is awed within me when I think 

 Of the great miracle that still goes on, 

 In silence, round me — the perpetual work 

 Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed 

 Forever. Written on thy works I read 

 The lesson of thy own eternity. 



