Woodlands were important to early settlers

Forests valued more than prairies

Early settlers called the area that is now southern Todd County "the barrens" because it was flat and grassy. Few trees grew there, except along streams. It was part of a large prairie ("barrens") that stretched across present-day Barren, Warren, Simpson, and Logan counties, and the southern parts of Todd, Christian, and Trigg counties (see map). These barrens were one of several areas of tallgrass prairie in Kentucky before the land was put under cultivation.

The northern part of Todd county was hilly and forested, with a little creek at the bottom of every ridge. Such land, though rough and rocky, was considered highly valuable by early settlers. The reasons are summarized in this passage, written a century ago:

These lands [the soils] were not rich, but there was an abundance of fine timber out of which to build houses and barns and construct Virginia rail fences; beautiful streams well stocked with the finest of game fish; an abundance of mast to fatten swine; the river and creek bottoms covered with a growth of succulent young cane upon which cattle could live all winter; and wild game of many varieties in great abundance.

No wonder the settlers from the wooded hills and valleys of Virginia preferred this section to the "Barren" lands, as the prairie lands before mentioned were called. These same "Barren" lands were then selling for twelve and one-half cents per acre, while the wooded lands were selling for eight times as much.

Source: A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities by E. Polk Johnson (Volume 3, p. 1444). Published in 1912 by the Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago and New York.)

The tree-hugger goes to the zoo

Native trees observed at the Nashville Zoo

When I was at the Nashville (TN) zoo last weekend, I enjoyed seeing the trees almost as much as I enjoyed the animals. The zoo is being developed on Grassmere, a historic 200-acre farm that was south of Nashville until the city grew around it. We visit every two or three years, and every time we go, new exhibits have been opened and more animals added.

How the zoo came to Grassmere

Elise and Margaret Croft were the last private owners of Grassmere. The two elderly sisters lost their main income when their family's sugar plantations in Cuba were nationalized by Castro in 1960. The city of Nashville had surrounded their farm by that time, and the property taxes were too expensive for them to pay. They could have sold the farm to developers, but they felt it would be a desecration of the land and a betrayal of the wild animals who lived there.

In 1964, the Croft sisters reached an agreement with the Children's Museum of Nashville that the Children's Museum would pay the taxes and help with the maintenance of the large old house. The Croft sisters would be able to live on the farm for the rest of their lives, and the museum would inherit the property when they died. They were lovers of nature, so they stipulated that the land could be used only as a nature study center.

Margaret Croft passed away in 1974. Custody of the land was assumed by the Children's Museum of Nashville in 1985, following the death of Elise, and in 1997, the Nashville Zoo took over the property.

Bamboo forest in the native woods

A visit to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere has always been like a walk in the woods. I don't know when the property was last farmed seriously, but it was a long time ago -- decades, maybe even most of a century. Wherever I look around the zoo, I see woods. Some of the property has been cleared for animal enclosures, facilities for people, etc., but otherwise, it appears that the trees have taken over. Many of the trees are tall, mature specimens, suggesting that they've been growing for quite a while.

There's a new part of the zoo called the "Bamboo Trail", and the name is appropriate. Tall stands of bamboo grow thickly along the paths and the animals who are kept in that area are natives of bamboo forests. It's interesting to experience bamboo as a forest. (Photo at right: looking straight up from a park bench along the Bamboo Trail.)

Still, as a native tree enthusiast, I'm concerned about this "bamboo garden displaying a wide variety of bamboo found around the world," as the Nashville Zoo website describes it.

Bamboo is renown for being invasive; some species are more invasive than others. I hope the landscapers have some foolproof system of barriers to keep it all contained. If not, mature trees in adjoining areas are going to have fierce competition for resources, and the understory won't stand a chance.

My concerns are not unfounded. Look closely at the photo of the Alligator Cove sign and you will see many young bamboo shoots. This sign is in a wooded area that adjoins the Bamboo Trail. I hope they are clipping the invasive shoots like these to give to the animals!

Native trees at Grassmere

Around the main visitor's center, a dozen or more Magnolia grandifolia have been planted. They are young trees, but they're growing nicely. They are 30 to 40 feet tall now. It's late summer, so their fruit is beginning to form. I think Nashville is a little north of the true native range of Southern magnolia, but they can be grown there (and even farther north) successfully.

Elsewhere in the zoo, there are big beautiful hackberries (lots and lots of hackberries), beeches, hickories, cottonwoods, tulip poplars, maples, black walnuts (photo at left), oaks and redcedars. (I am just mentioning some of the most common tall trees I saw.)

I realize that the zoo is going to clear some wooded areas as exhibits are developed. I understand that the animals need winter quarters and roads to bring in food for them. I know that the visitors must have parking lots for their cars.  I even realize that some visitors are going to consider the native trees "run-of-the-mill" compared with the bamboo forest.

However, I hope the zoo developers will conserve, protect, and propagate the beautiful native trees of Grassmere wherever they can. I am positive that the trees were part of what Elise and Margaret Croft hoped to permanently protect on their farm. It would be impossible to live there and not love the trees.

- - - - - - - - - -

One last thing that I want to mention -- and this is probably true of all zoos -- I read in a Nashville Zoo press release that the zoo needs unwanted vegetation such as tree trimmings, especially in the winter.

Species particularly mentioned as desirable are hackberry, elm, redbud, sweetgum, hickory, willow and -- bamboo. The vegetation is given to the animals for "physical and mental stimulation". The zoo calls it "browse."

Because of what the animals can eat and what they like, some tree clippings are are not suitable. The zoo will NOT accept oak, sycamore, tulip poplar, cherry, maple, walnut, locust, or any evergreen tree.

Front lawn of the Grassmere home

Big Oak Tree State Park

An important place for me to visit

I'll be 58 next month, and I've been thinking about some things I'd like to see and do during my 58th year. I must admit that some of these things could/should have been done long ago -- but better late than never, no?

One of my goals is to visit Big Oak Tree State Park, in extreme southeastern Missouri. I've crossed the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois, dozens of times. However, I've never taken the time to turn off the main road and drive 25 miles south to the park. I'm always in a hurry, on a trip to visit my family.

The park has a very interesting history. This area, already a flood-plains forest, sank up to 50 feet in some places during the great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811. Swamps became swampier. As settlers populated the area, they recognized the agricultural potential of the rich, alleuvial soil, and a century of reclamation began, with the goal of creating as much farmland as possible.

By the 1930s, nearly all of the swamps had been drained and nearly all of the forest had been cleared. One tract in Mississippi County, soon to be logged, contained the largest bur oak tree that has ever been known. Public sentiment was aroused, and a statewide effort began to save the big bur oak and to preserve a remnant of Missouri's great forest of the Mississippi floodplain.

Because of the Great Depression, the state of Missouri did not have enough funds to purchase the acreage where the tree grew. With a combination of state funds, private donations, and the generosity of concerned citizens who gave what they could, enough money was raised to buy 1007 acres of virgin hardwood forest in Mississippi County. This purchase included the tract of land with the giant bur oak tree. In 1938, the Big Oak Tree Park was dedicated.

The bur oak fell in the 1950s. Its death at the advanced age of 396 was attributed to lightning strikes and rot. The tract of land where it grew is now a National Natural Landmark. The National Park Service describes the area as "the only sizable tract of essentially virgin wet-mesic bottomland habitat."

In addition to the champion bur oak, the park has been a home to other state and national champion trees as well.  Missouri State Parks information says that "...trees in the park are unsurpassed in the state for their size, with a canopy averaging 120 feet and with several trees more than 130 feet tall. Five trees qualify as state champions in their species; two others rank as national champions."

The park is attractive to bird-watchers as well as tree-lovers. Around 150 species of birds have been observed there, including some very rare species that have not recently been seen -- and that brings me to a sad ending for this story.

It seems that the park's forest is not in good health. According to an article in American Forests, the old trees are dying and seedlings are not growing. The cane brake is also dying.

Part of the problem is a lake that was built in the park in 1959, destroying the natural swamp that had been there. Drainage systems within the park, designed to prevent flooding of nearby farmland in wet weather, have deprived the ecosystem of the water it needs to sustain itself. Beaver dams were dynamited, also increasing the drainage. Foresters are trying to correct these mistakes now, but it may be too late for the forest to recover.

So I must visit Big Oak Tree State Park sometime soon -- as soon as possible. 

Images in this post are from Wikipedia. The map is from the article "Big Oak Tree State Park" and the photo is from an upload page titled "Big Oak Tree State Park Boardwalk". I highly recommend viewing the full-resolution version (3.96 MB ) of the photo above. Thank you to Knowledgeum, the photographer.

The forest claims one of its own

Mysterious disappearance of a Kentucky frontiersman

Here is a brief biography of one of Kentucky's earliest settlers, James Harrod, who founded the first permanent settlement in Kentucky:

JAMES Harrod, born in Virginia in 1746; reared and educated in his native state, immigrated to Kentucky in 1774, and built the first log cabin on the present site of Harrodsburg; he was a successful agriculturist, an expert with the rifle, and a brave and intrepid soldier, ranking as one of the leaders in military affairs, distinguishing himself at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774; subsequently he represented Harrodsburg (which was named in his honor) in the Transylvania Assembly; he was in the habit of making solitary excursions into the forest, and from one of these trips, which was undertaken about the year 1825, when he was about eighty years of age, he never returned, nor was any trace of him ever discovered.

Source: History of Kentucky (p. 628) by Charles Kerr, William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter. Published in 1922 by the American Historical Society, Chicago and New York.

Unfortunately, the authors were mistaken about the date of Harrod's disappearance. Dozens of other sources say that Harrod disappeared in 1792. He would have been less than fifty years of age at the time.

Coincidentally or not, Harrod prepared a will shortly before his disappearance. The settlers searched the woodlands surrounding Harrodsburg, but no trace of him was ever found.

To this day, no one knows what became of Harrod, but there are three lines of speculation: 1) He suffered an accident in the woods and died. 2) His wife had been unfaithful and he decided to leave. Rumors circulated to this effect. 3) He was murdered. Various rumors were spread about this as well.

James Harrod was a skilled and experienced woodsman and hunter, strong, brave, and resourceful. One writer of the mid-19th century considered him a "hunter-naturalist" of note, a man who met the challenge of the wild land in which he lived.

One thing that can be said with certainty is that Kentucky was virtually untouched by European settlers when James Harrod build a log house at Harrodsburg in 1774. The forests were in their perfect primeval state. Chestnut, American elm, and ash trees were untouched by disease and exotic insects. Elk, wolves, bears, and passenger pigeons were as familiar as blackbirds, deer, and rabbits. What dramatic changes the next two centuries brought!

Bald cypress swamps in Midwestern states

Northwestern range of the bald cypress tree

When you hear the words "bald cypress", do you think of the cypress swamps of Georgia or Florida? If so, you are absolutely right -- bald cypress trees are common in the coastal wetlands of the Southeast. We've all seen images of moss-draped baldcypress trees and their impressive knees, even if we've never personally visited a cypress swamp.

However, it may surprise you that the range of the baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) includes a small portion of several Midwestern states. The bald cypress occurs naturally in the Mississippi River valley of southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri, and in the Wabash and Ohio River valleys of southern Illinois and southern Indiana.

Before the land was settled, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri had many acres of cypress swamps, perhaps not as famous as those of the southeast, but every bit as genuine. Many of these wetlands were drained and the land was put into cultivation, as Charles Clemon Deam noted in the 1916 book, Trees of Indiana.

In recent years, an effort has been made to conserve remaining swamps, such as the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Missouri, Twin Swamps and Goose Pond Cypress Slough in southern Indiana, and the Cache River State Natural Area in southern Illinois.

Dozens of baldcypress have been planted in the Fort Defiance park at Cairo, Illinois, on the last bit of land between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers. The image at right, taken at the park in October of 2008, shows baldcypress in the background as well as the foreground . In fact, the baldcypress in the Fort Defiance park were the first of that species that I ever saw.

Bald cypress has been successfully planted much farther north than the area where it occurs naturally. While writing this post, I've read about bald cypress trees that are surviving the winters of Minnesota, Michigan, and even southern Canada.

More about Midwestern cypress swamps:
Mingo: Last of the Bootheel Swamps
Mitch and Amy's Mingo Swamp Adventure
Cache River Wetlands
"Cypress swamps Illinois" on Flickr

Credit:
Range map from the USDA Silvics Manual, Volume 1

Principles of good forestry from 1923

Increasing the productivity of woodlands

Visiting from Timberbuysell.com? Please read this.

The following forestry practices are recommended in a 1923 agriculture textbook. They still seem valid today, though I've added a few notes.

1. Only the ripe [mature] trees should be selected when cutting the crops.

2. Injury to small seedlings and saplings should be avoided.

3. Diseased and misshapen trees should be removed and used either for the market or at home. [NOTE: You should ask your state forester or county extension agent how best to remove a diseased tree. Felling the tree may puff disease organisms into the air and spread the problem.]

4. The inferior trees should be removed if the space is needed for better ones. [NOTE: Avoid monoculture.]

5. A few large trees should be left to reseed the woodland.

6. Pasturing with animals that will injure the young seedlings should not be permitted.

7. Fires should be excluded and notices calling attention to fire damage to forest growth should be posted. [NOTE: I really don't know what to say about this. Fire has a role in forest ecosystems, and foresters frequently do "controlled burns." On the other hand, do you really want to have a fire in your woodlot? If you do decide to introduce fire, get some advice!]

8. The stand should be thinned so as to secure the best growth, but heavy thinning is not desirable.

9. Sprouts from stumps form stands called coppice. These should also be thinned, leaving the best sprouts.

10. Trees damaged by storm should be removed before they are attacked by insects and disease, which would spread to others.

11. Brush and waste after all cuttings should be piled and burned. [NOTE: It would be a good idea to check local burn laws before lighting up the pile.]

Source: From the chapter titled "Woodland Projects" (p.322) in The New Agriculture for High Schools by Kary C. Davis, Ph.D. Published in 1923 by J.P. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

Related post: When logging, get some guidelines!

Technorati tags: forestry principles, woodlot management, managed woodlots, woodlands, harvesting forests

The benefits of forests, as seen in 1923

Why forests are important

The following passage is quoted from a 1923 textbook, The New Agriculture For High Schools. The author, Dr. Kary C. Davis, advises students that some woodlands should be preserved on farms. Here are the reasons he gives:

Forests benefit regions in a number of ways:

1, They greatly modify and improve climate.

2. They greatly equalize temperature.

3. They break the force of the wind.

4. They check evaporation.

5. They prevent floods or make them less serious. The forest itself and its floor of leaves and trash absorbing the rainfall, retard the rush of water to streams.

6. Water power for mills and factories along streams is more uniform because of a steady supply of water coming from a stream through a well-protected forest watershed.

7. Wells and springs are more continuous in their flow because more water enters the soil and gradually seeks the underground currents.

Source: From the chapter titled "Woodland Projects" (p.322) in The New Agriculture for High Schools by Kary C. Davis, Ph.D. Published in 1923 by J.P. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

It has been 85 years since the above points were listed.

We probably don't use as much water power today to run mills and factories (see #6 above,) but we depend on our rivers to produce electricity and to provide water for cities, agriculture, and recreation.

If we were rewriting this list today, we might also add that forests help reduce air pollution and serve as carbon sinks.

Technorati tags: forests, importance of forests

Feral pigs damage ecosystems

Releasing pigs into the forest was a terrible idea.

 Feral pigs at Cape Canaveral, FL -- NASA photo

Mast is an old-fashioned word. The term refers to fallen nuts and fruits that are available to wild animals as winter food.

Sometimes we still hear or read about "mast trees". Often the term is used when talking about food sources for wildlife. Personally, I think of mast trees mainly as oaks, hickories, beech, and walnuts.

While browsing through the archives of Scientific American on the Library of Congress website recently, I came across an article about raising pigs on mast.

In 1864 when the article was written, the American chestnut was plentiful, as well as nuts and acorns from the trees I mentioned above. The author, J.T.D. of Springfield, Illinois, also identifies pawpaw, persimmon, haw and the hazelnut as forms of mast.

J.T.D. wrote that hogs who fed on mast produced pork as good as that from corn-fed hogs. He believed that "sweet acorns" were some of the best mast for producing tasty pork. He advised anyone moving to the "West" (west of the Appalachians) to buy land suitable for turning pigs into the forest where they could eat for free.

Sources of U.S. feral pigs

Hogs set loose in the woods by long-ago farmers like J.T.D. are part of the reason there's a feral pig problem in many parts of the United States today. We can't blame the old-time farmers exclusively, though. There are several other sources of today's feral pigs:

1. Early Spanish explorers brought hogs to the New World, some of which went wild.
2. Hogs were released for hunting purposes in several areas of the U.S. about 100 years ago.
3. Some mindless people are releasing pigs into the wild to this day--illegally in most cases -- so they can hunt them.

Feral pigs: Spoilers of nature

Here are just a few reasons why it's undesirable to have feral pigs in the woods.

1. They compete directly with native wildlife for food.
2. They root and wallow in wildlife habitat, wetlands, stands of endangered plants, croplands, and anywhere they go.
3. They eat small animals and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds.
4. They transmit disease to domestic stock, and even to humans.

Read more here:
Feral Hogs in Michigan
Feral Hogs: Wildlife Enemy Number One (Alabama)
History of Wild Boars
Google search for "feral hogs"

Spring in Pennyrile Forest

Kentucky's largest state forest

Dennis and I were at Pennyrile State Forest today. Spring is in full progress. Some trees have brown dead foliage from the late freeze, but others are fully green. It's interesting that some dogwoods are blooming now. Apparently, they were still in bud when the multiple nights of freezing temperatures occurred, and thus they escaped damage. That's good -- there will at least be a few dogwood berries for the birds and squirrels this fall.

Spring in the Woods

March in Christian County, KY

Wooly Hemlock Adelgids Invading Kentucky

Native hemlocks face a grave danger.

Wooly adelgid infestation, photographed by Flikr user Nicholas_T

The native hemlock trees of eastern Kentucky's mountain regions are threatened by a tiny sap-sucking insect -- the wooly hemlock adelgid, an insect brought from China in the 1920's. The wooly hemlock adelgid is widespread in the eastern United States, but it has only recently been spotted in Kentucky.

The following description of the wooly adelgid problem in the southeastern U.S. was provided by the National Forest Service. (At the time this was written, Kentucky had not yet been invaded)

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is a non-native invasive pest that impacts eastern hemlock and Carolina hemlock. HWA has spread to the Southern Appalachian region of northern Georgia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southern Virginia. Without control, hemlocks typically die within five to seven years after infestation.

Hemlock trees serve important ecological roles in the southern Appalachians. They are a keystone species in near-stream areas, providing critical habitat for birds and other animals, and shading streams to maintain cool water temperatures required by trout and other aquatic organisms. Hemlocks are also prized for their visual beauty in both forest and urban settings, and are a contributor to residential property values.

Source " Emerging Issues in the South: Hemlock Wooly Adelgid" a website of the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station Headquarters in Ashville, North Carolina. Viewed 2/25/07 at http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/cc/emerging/hwa.htm. No longer available.

You should suspect adelgid infection of any hemlock trees that have white, wooly deposits on the undersides of the branches. The wool-like appearance of the insect's secretions is the reason it is called the "wooly hemlock adelgid." 

According to a document published by the University of Kentucky, Meeting the Threat of the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid by entymologists Lee Townsend and Lynne Rieske-Kinney, the insect is susceptible to the insecticidal soaps and dormant oils that one can purchase in any garden chemical department. Several treatments are required, and they must be timed to the life cycle of the adelgid. Local county extension agents can advise the best times in spring or fall to spray.

Alternatively, the ground around the tree can be soaked with an insecticide containing imidacloprid so that the tree's roots carry it into the tree. Another method is to inject the insecticide into the tree's trunk. Either way, the adelgid will be killed as it sucks the insecticide-laden sap.

Townsend and Rieske-Kinney caution that the insect can be carried from perch to perch on the feet of birds, so bird feeders should never be placed near hemlock trees.

It seems that this threat is possible to manage in the backyard, but more difficult to control in woodlands. The infestation can be spread by felling an infected tree or by dragging around infected branches. Get advice about treatment, and proceed with care.

A healthy hemlock, white pine and hardwood forest in northeast
Pennsylvania. Photographed by Flikr user Nicholas A. Tonelli

Updated July 28, 2013.

The Forest Floor in Late Winter

Moss, fungi, lichens, and an alien invader

Here's a look at some of the life that's thriving in the woods in mid-February, despite the long cold spell we've just had. The moss is lush and green, and the lichens are practically glowing. Beige fungi are digesting the dead branch.

I see a few sprigs of honeysuckle -- the stems with green leaves at left. Honeysuckle vine, a non-native, invasive species, is rampant along the edges of these woods. Here in Kentucky, it's a nearly-evergreen plant. It can climb to great heights by twining and twisting around trunks and branches, and once it reaches sunlight, it forms its own canopy over the canopy of its host tree or shrub, depriving the host of sunshine and subjecting it to a great deal of stress from the weight of the overgrowth. 
Lichens are interesting things. They're composite organisms -- that is, they're made of fungi growing together with something else (usually algae) in a symbiotic relationship. Many of the lichens even reproduce by making a diaspore that contains cells from both partners.

I've noticed that the lichens seem to do very well in winter in Kentucky. Lichens are so immune to damage from cold that they survived unprotected in space in an experiment conducted by astronauts -- thus a few months with temperatures below freezing are nothing to them. The leaves are off the trees, so they get plenty of sunshine and there's usually plenty of moisture too, since we get a lot of our annual rainfall during the winter months.

I don't know what sort of fungus that is, but it seems to be a benign part of the circle of life, just helping that tree branch decompose. However, some fungi can be a big problem to living trees. Heart-rotting fungi may not kill a tree immediately but will destroy its lumber value. Root-rotting fungi make the tree vulnerable to windfall. Then there's the various fungal diseases that can kill trees, such as oak wilt and dogwood anthracnose and many other molds, wilts, rusts, etc.

I love to see green patches of moss in winter. The bit of bright color is a welcome accent to winter's muted palette of browns. Like the lichens, the moss thrives in the damp conditions and cool temperatures of winter and takes its dormant time during the hot, dry months of summer. That sounds good to me! I don't like hot weather either!

Logging Underway

A private landowner harvests some trees.

Logging underway in Christian County, KY

I don't like to watch the work of loggers. This photo doesn't clearly show all the small trees that the logging crew broke while cutting and hauling out the big trees. Many of the neighbors are aghast at the damage that this careless, sloppy logger is doing to these woods.

I suppose the big trees at the front of the photo are probably enjoying their last days. That's sad to me.

I do understand that if landowners can't have some occasional income from woodlands, they're going to think about bulldozing the trees and planting something more profitable. Every crop has its harvest time. Why do I hate to see the trees cut, but I don't think twice about a meadow that's cut three times in a single summer?

Trees in Estes Park, Early 1870s

Isabella Bird's account of "The dense, ancient, silent forest..."

Isabella Bird visited the pine forest near the treeline in Estes Park, Colorado, in the early 1870's and recorded her observations:

WE RODE UPWARDS through the gloom on a steep trail blazed through the forest, all my intellect concentrated on avoiding being dragged off my horse by impending branches, or having the blankets badly torn, as those of my companions were, by sharp dead limbs, between which there was hardly room to pass--the horses breathless, and requiring to stop every few yards, though their riders, except myself, were afoot.

The gloom of the dense, ancient, silent forest is to me awe inspiring. On such an evening it is soundless, except for the branches creaking in the soft wind, the frequent snap of decayed timber, and a murmur in the pine tops as of a not distant waterfall, all tending to produce EERINESS and a sadness "hardly akin to pain." There no lumberer's axe has ever rung. The trees die when they have attained their prime, and stand there, dead and bare, till the fierce mountain winds lay them prostrate.

The pines grew smaller and more sparse as we ascended, and the last stragglers wore a tortured, warring look. The timber line was passed, but yet a little higher a slope of mountain meadow dipped to the south-west towards a bright stream trickling under ice and icicles, and there a grove of the beautiful silver spruce marked our camping ground. The trees were in miniature, but so exquisitely arranged that one might well ask what artist's hand had planted them, scattering them here, clumping them there, and training their slim spires towards heaven.

Hereafter, when I call up memories of the glorious, the view from this camping ground will come up. Looking east, gorges opened to the distant Plains, then fading into purple grey. Mountains with pine-clothed skirts rose in ranges, or, solitary, uplifted their grey summits, while close behind, but nearly 3,000 feet above us, towered the bald white crest of Long's Peak, its huge precipices red with the light of a sun long lost to our eyes. Close to us, in the caverned side of the Peak, was snow that, owing to its position, is eternal.

Soon the afterglow came on, and before it faded a big half-moon hung out of the heavens, shining through the silver blue foliage of the pines on the frigid background of snow, and turning the whole into fairyland.

--From "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains," by Isabella L. Bird (1831-1904)
Published in 1873.