422 



RECREATION. 



made such a noble background for the ever- 

 changing panorama, have entirely disap- 

 peared. In their place remain their ugly, 

 charred and blackened stumps. It does 

 not seem possible the hand of man could 

 have wrought such a change in so short a 

 time. 



Nor have the pines been the only trees 

 that have suffered, for the lumber-jack was 

 closely followed by terrible forest fires that 

 swept everything clean in the old chop- 

 pings but the pine stumps. What were 

 once beautiful groves of maple, birch and 

 ash are left standing, but their branches 

 do not respond to nature's call at spring- 

 tide and send forth tender young shoots. 

 They are dead. The sap has been dried up 

 in their veins by the fires. Such a scene 

 is the sublimity of desolation. It is grand 

 but depressing, and makes one feel as 

 though he were walking through a neglect- 

 ed graveyard. Even the birds seem to feel 



the desolation and do not tarry long in the 

 withered branches of the trees. 



The elms, which are by far the hand- 

 somest trees in Michigan's forests, and 

 worthy rivals of the pine for the title of 

 king, are still standing, having thus far 

 escaped the onslaught of the axe and with- 

 stood the attacks of the flames. But they 

 are doomed. The Indiana hoopmakers have 

 discovered their existence, and are moving 

 their mills to the upper peninsula. In a few 

 years every elm that now stands like a 

 grand old sentinel On the banks of the 

 Michigamme will have gone into hoops to 

 encircle the staves that hold annexation 

 sugar. 



Even the hills of rock have not escaped. 

 The miner heard of the dark reddish 

 streaks that stained them and came with 

 pick, shovel and drill. The ugly windlass 

 stands above many a pile of broken rock, 

 and does not imorove the scene. 



DASH AT CLOSE QUARTERS. 

 Winner of 32c! Prize in Recreation's 6th Annual Photo Competition 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY B. L, NICHOLS. 



