Eternal Forest

      Yet, the view of that noble expanse was like the opening of bright day upon the gloom of night, to us who had been so long buried in deep forests. It is a feeling of confinement, which begins to damp the spirits, from this complete exclusion of distant objects. To travel day after day, among trees of a hundred feet high, without a glimpse of the surrounding country, is oppressive to a degree which those cannot conceive who have not experienced it ; and it must depress the spirits of the solitary settler to pass years in this state. His visible horizon extends no farther than the tops of the trees which bound his plantation — perhaps, five hundred yards. Upwards he sees the sun and sky, and stars, but around him an eternal forest, from which he can never hope to emerge : —not so in a thickly settled district ; he cannot there enjoy any freedom of prospect, yet there is variety, and some scope for the imprisoned vision. In a hilly country a little more range of view may occasionally be obtained ; and a river is a stream of light as well as of water, which feasts the eye with a delight inconceivable to the inhabitants of open countries.