TIMBER. 



129 



and climate, are all propitious, and it is desired that 

 nature's fullest, grandest, development should be dis- 

 played, from 70 to 150 feet, clear of branch, may be 

 gained. Lewis and Clarke describe a spruce, in a 

 sheltered dell on the river Columbia, which they mea- 

 sured, lying upon the ground, 312 feet long from 

 root to top. We have little belonging to earth more 

 sublime, or which bears home to man a deeper sense 

 of his bodily insignificance, and puny transient being, 

 than an ancient majestic forest, whose luxuriant fo- 

 liage on high, seems of itself almost a firmament of 

 verdiue, supported on lofty moss- covered columns, 

 and unnumbered branched arches, — a scene equally 

 sublime, whether we view it under the coloured and 

 flickering lights and shadows of the summer eve 

 and morning, resounding to the song of the wild 

 life which harbom's there, — or under the scattered 

 beams streaming downward at high noontide when 

 all is still, — or in winter storms, when the wild jarring 

 commotion, the frightful rending and lashing of the 

 straining branches, hke the arms of primeval giants, 

 contending in their might, bear accompaniment to 

 the loud roar and bellow of the tempest, forming a 

 drone and chaunter to which demons might dance. 



I 



