" Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese, cranes,
herons, and other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray squirrels,
prairie chickens, and partridges the hunter found at every turn.
Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to
penetrate. The trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads,
and Indian trails ramified in all directions, and sometimes were
wide enough to allow two or three wagons to advance abreast.
Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores, and "sugars" pushed to great
heights in quest of air and sunshine, and often their
intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a heavy
growth of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during
the summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach
the ground. There was, therefore, a notable absence of
undergrowth. When a tree died and decayed, it fell apart
piecemeal; it was with difficulty that woodsmen could wrest a
giant oak or poplar from its moorings and bring it to the ground,
even by severing the trunk completely at the base. Here and there
a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps dozens of
miles, by a hurricane.
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