Naushon Island, Mass.
1900
May 20, 21
(No 2)
  The woods of Naushon cover rather more than
half the island. They are extremely interesting as well
as beautiful from the fact that they have never been
chorded nor, to any extent, pruned or otherwise tampered
with by man. Even the fallen trees are in most cases 
left untouched and in places they cover the ground
almost as thickly as in the Maine woods. But the
Deer not only keep down the undergrowth but also clip
off the ends of the drooping branches as high as they
can reach. The result is that when there are neither
boulders nor prostrate tree trunks the space under
the trees to about the height of a man's head is
absolutely clear of bushes or twigs and the surface
of the ground a plain brown carpet of dead leaves
undiversified by vegetation of any kind. At least this
would be the first impression of a casual observer; but 
on looking closely I found everywhere countless woody shoots
of sprout or seedling saplings chipped off an inch or
so above the ground by the Deer and as cleanly as
if cut by sharp pruning shears. It is evident that 
if the Deer were destroyed the woods would become
filled with undergrowth & saplings in the course
of a few seasons. As they are at present they
probably closely resemble the original forests which
once covered most of Cape Cod and its neighboring 
islands. They are so open beneath that horsemen
can and do ride through them almost anywhere
at full speed and where the ground was not
too rocky or uneven we had little difficulty in 
driving about in our buggy.
The woods
of Naushon
  The trees are of large size considering the poverty
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