You'll have to get up." But Peter this time did not stir
till I touched him a flick with my whip.
The trail winds around, for it is a logging trail, leading
up to the best bluffs, which are ruthlessly cut down by
the fuel-hunters. Only dead and half decayed trees are
spared. But still young boles spring up in astonishing
numbers. Aspen and Balm predominate, though there is some
ash and oak left here and there, with a conifer as the
rarest treat for the lover of trees. It is a pitiful
thing to see a Nation's heritage go into the discard. In
France or in England it would be tended as something
infinitely precious. The face of our country as yet shows
the youth of infancy, but we make it prematurely old.
The settler who should regard the trees as his greatest
pride, to be cut into as sparingly as is compatible with
the exigencies of his struggle for life--he regards them
as a nuisance to be burned down by setting wholesale
fires to them. Already there is a scarcity of fuel-wood
in these parts.
Where the fires as yet have not penetrated too badly,
the cutting, which leaves only what is worthless, determines
the impression the forest makes.
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