24 
KEYIEWS. 
quires a mucli longer time than eighteen hundred years, and carries 
us back therefore far beyond any antiquity indicated by the forests. 
These, nevertheless, have also a tale to tell. Thus Captain Peek* 
observed near the Ontonagon Itiver, and at a depth of twenty-five 
feet, some stone mauls and other implements in contact with a vein 
of copper. Above these was the fallen trunk of a large cedar, and 
“ over all grew a hemlock tree, the roots of which spread entirely 
above the fallen tree ”.and indicated in his estimation, 
a growth of not less than three centuries, to which must then be 
added the age of the cedar, which indicates a still “ longer succession 
“ of centuries, subsequent to that protracted period during which 
“ the deserted trench was slowly filled up with accumulations of 
“ nany winters.” 
The late President Harrison, in an address to the Historical 
Society of Ohio, made some very philosophical remarks on this 
subject, which are quoted by Messrs. Squier and Davis.f “ The 
“ process,” L he says, “by which nature restores the forest to its 
“ original state, after being once cleared, is extremely slow. The rich 
“ lands of the West are, indeed, soon covered again, but the character 
“ of the growth is entirely different, and continues so for a long period. 
“ In several places upon the Ohio, and upon the farm which I 
“ occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement of the country, 
“ and subsequently abandoned and suffered to grow up. Some of 
“ these new forests are now sure of fifty years’ growth, but they 
“ have made so little progress towards attaining the appearance of 
“ the immediately contiguous forest, as to induce any man of re- 
“ flection to determine that at least ten times fifty years must elapse 
“ before their complete assimilation can be effected. We find in 
“ the ancient works all that variety of trees which give such unri- 
“ vailed beauty to our forests, in natural proportions. The first 
“ growth on the same kind of land, once cleared and then abandoned 
“ to nature, on the contrary, is nearly homogeneous, often stinted 
“ to one or two, at most three kinds of timber. If the ground has 
“ been cultivated, the yellow locust will thickly spring up; if not 
“ cultivated the black and white walnut will be the prevailing 
“ growth. * * * * * Of what immense age then must be 
“ the works so often referred to, covered as they are by at least the 
“ second growth, after the primitive forest state was regained P ” 
We get another indication of antiquity in the “ garden beds,” 
which we have already described. This system of cultivation has 
long been replaced by the simple and irregular “ cornhills;” and yet, 
according to Mr. Lapham,J the garden beds are much more recent 
than the mounds, across which they extend in the same manner as 
over the adjoining grounds. If, therefore, these mounds belong to 
the same era as those which are covered with wood, we get thus 
indications of three periods; the first, that of the mounds them- 
* Willson, c. Vol. i. p. 256. f L. c. p. 306. f L. c. p. 19. 
