While the light plays on the varying surface of the tree-tops, one sombre
and little-varied hue colors the earth. Dead and moss-covered logs; mounds
covered with decomposed vegetable substances, the graves of long-past
generations of trees; cavities left by the fall of some uprooted trunk;
dark fungi, that flourish around the decayed roots of those about to lose
their hold, with a few slender and delicate plants of a minor growth, and
which best succeed in the shade, form the accompaniments of the lower
scene. The whole is tempered, and in summer rendered grateful, by a
freshness which equals that of the subterranean vault, without possessing
any of its chilling dampness. In the midst of this gloomy solitude, the
foot of man is rarely heard. An occasional glimpse of the bounding deer or
trotting moose, is almost the only interruption on the earth itself; while
the heavy bear or leaping panther, is, at long intervals, met seated on
the branches of some venerable tree. There are moments, too, when troops
of hungry wolves are found hunting on the trail of the deer; but these are
seen rather as exceptions to the stillness of the place, than as
accessories that should properly be introduced into the picture.
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