250 — “The Plains” of Michigan. 
sion and we are constantly half-inclined to the delusion that we 
are walking through an artificial grove, and that just over the 
knoll or beyond the hollow the buildings of the proprietor will 
be seen. This is, however, a most unsubstantial feeling and can- 
not betrusted in the least, for one may wander about for miles with- 
out coming upon any trace of human life except the wagon track 
he is following and occasional blazes on the trees that indicate the 
path followed by hunters and land-lookers who have gone before 
him. Indeed there is sometimes real danger of losing one’s way, 
unless he is something of a woodsman, and accounts are not want- 
ing of those who have been lost and have perished from fatigue 
and hunger on these barrens. 4 
i 
i 
: 
) 
, 
The thing that attracts the attention at the outset and continues 
to do so, until its constant repetition ceases to produce the imp 
sion of anything unusual, is the fact that a large portion of 
region has been swept over time and again by fire. Here the 
has passed over within a year, and remnants of the black 
stems of young trees and shrubs that had sprung up afters 
earlier fire are still standing and the ground itself is bare. 
blackened. There the conflagration took place a few yeatsé 
and the ground is thickly covered with a new growth several . 
in height, the path of the fire being indicated by the tall, charred 
trunks of larger trees that overtop as complete a picture of 
lation as can well be imagined. In the midst of this ruin 
ritory, and often extending for considerable distances, are 5" 
and even good-sized forests, that in some way have escaped 
struction and still remain, waiting the equally certain fate of 
lumberman’s axe or another fire. 
rD 
like uses if only its wood were less subject to decay. 
fences it lasts only a few years, and by common consent 
unused, except for fuel, enjoying the distinction of be 
sidered the most miserable production of this miserable 
great abundance constantly suggests the query as Hr 
good for. If the manufacturers of wood pulp can succeed 
y 
