256 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Big woods. 
Botanical 
classes of 
trees. 
—how sublime they are in their power and 
yolume! To the uninitiated and the timid 
they may have terrors, but to the hunter 
and the backwoodsman the ‘big timber ” is an 
earthly paradise. There nature is supreme 
and man is only a cipher ; there heat, light, 
and moisture work their pleasure undisturbed. 
Within the pale of civilization, upon meadow, 
field, and hill-side, one can never feel that nat-. 
ure has done justice to itself or its growths. 
The woods upon our Eastern hills have all been 
raised upon the bottle. Where the Great 
Mother is unthwarted in her ways, she rears a 
brood of giants. 
The botanist has classed, ordered, sectioned, 
and specied the different trees, and christened 
each with a Latinized name; but I have no 
thought of following his scientific arrangement 
nor of cataloguing or classifying the different 
varieties of trees. My task has to do with 
surface appearances. Moreover, the general 
character of a tree is revealed by its form, 
color, or texture; and it may be assumed that 
the average person recognizes it by these feat- 
ures rather than by reducing it to botanical 
class and species. How much depends upon 
outline, hue, and surface, and what distin- 
