e clearing is wrapped in profound
obscurity. A settler on first locating on his lot knows no more of its
boundaries and its natural features than he does of the northwest
passage.

Under such disadvantages it is ten chances to one if he chooses the best
situation on the land for the site of his house. This is a very
sufficient reason for not putting up an expensive building till the land
is sufficiently cleared to allow its advantages and disadvantages to
become evident. Many eligible spots often present themselves to the eye
of the settler, in clearing his land, that cause him to regret having
built before he could obtain a better choice of ground. But
circumstances will seldom admit of delay in building in the bush; a
dwelling must be raised speedily, and that generally on the first
cleared acre. The emigrant, however, looks forward to some no very
distant period when he shall be able to gratify both his taste and love
of comfort in the erection of a handsomer and better habitation than his
log-house or his shanty, which he regards only in the light of a
temporary accommodation.

On first coming to this country nothing surprised me more than the total
absence of trees about the dwelling-houses and cleared lands; the axe of
the chopper relentlessly levels all before him. Man appears to contend
with the trees of the forest as though they were his most obnoxious
enemies; for he spares neither the young sapling in its greenness nor
the ancient trunk in its lofty pride; he wages war against the forest
with fire and steel.

There are several sufficient reasons to be given for this seeming want
of taste. The forest-trees grow so thickly together that they have no
room for expanding and putting forth lateral branches; on the contrary,
they run up to an amazing height of stem, resembling seedlings on a hot-
bed that have not duly been thinned out. Trees of this growth when
unsupported by others are tall, weak, and entirely divested of those
graces and charms of outline and foliage that would make them desirable
as ornaments to our grounds; but this is not the most cogent reason for
not leaving them, supposing some more sightly than others were to be
found.

Instead of striking deep roots in the earth, the forest-trees, with the
exception of the pines, have very superficial hold in the earth; the
roots running along the surface have no power to resist the wind when it
bends the tops, which thus act as a powerful lever in t