| | 1 | Author: | Hall
James
1793-1868 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Legends of the West  | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | The beautiful forests of Kentucky, when first
visited by the adventurous footsteps of the pioneers,
presented a scene of native luxuriance, such as has
seldom been witnessed by the human eye. So vast
a body of fertile soil had never before been known
to exist on this continent. The magnificent forest
trees attained a gigantic height, and were adorned
with a foliage of unrivalled splendour. The deep
rich green of the leaves, and the brilliant tints of the
flowers, nourished into full maturity of size and
beauty by the extraordinary fertility of the soil,
not only attracted the admiration of the hunter, but
warmed the fancy of the poet, and forcibly arrested
the attention of the naturalist. As the pioneers
proceeded step by step, new wonders were discovered;
and the features of the country, together with
its productions, as they became gradually developed,
continued to present the same bold peculiarities and
broad outlines. The same scale of greatness pervaded
all the works of nature. The noble rivers,
all tending towards one great estuary, swept through
an almost boundless extent of country, and seemed
to be as infinite in number as they were grand in
size. The wild animals were innumerable. The
forests teemed with living creatures, for this was the
paradise of the brute creation. Here were literally
“the cattle upon a thousand hills.” The buffaloe,
the elk, and the deer roamed in vast herds, and
all the streams were rich in those animals whose fur
is so much esteemed in commerce. Here lurked
the solitary panther, the lion of our region, and here
prowled the savage wolf. The nutritious fruits of
the forest, and the juicy buds of the exuberant
thickets, reared the indolent bear to an enormous
size. Even the bowels of the earth exhibited stupendous
evidences of the master hand of creation.
The great limestone beds of the country were perforated
with spacious caverns, of vast extent and
splendid appearance, many of which yielded valuable
minerals; while the gigantic bones found buried
in the earth, far exceeding in size those of all known
animals on the globe, attested the former existence
in this region, of brutes of fearful magnitude. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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