USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont; with descriptions, physical and topographical > Part 19
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This season, 1843, and since writing the above, the author heard for the first time in this state, the notes of the quail. It was in the vicinity of the south village in Chester. His ears could hardly be persuaded that it was real, until the well known sounds of " more wet !" " more wet !" became too distinct to admit of doubt.
Welcome his approach to the vallies of this state, and margins of its rivulets ; and long may he sojourn among its husbandmen. If driven from Connecticut and Mas- sachusetts, by incessant inroads upon his retreats; if resolved to venture among the Vermonters, and try the perils of the green mountains, may his reception from
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the reapers and cradlers of their harvest fields be hos- pitable.
But how this quiet, home-loving bird survived the long, and severe, and snowy winter just ended, seems mysterious. Indeed wonderful is the contrast between the present summer and the past winter, each being almost unprecedented in its appearance. Vegetation now is remarkably luxuriant ; the forests are more ver- dant than usual ; and animated by a greater number and variety of songsters ; and an impulse seems to have been given to the liveliness and loveliness of nature ; and an increase to her power of enchantment and regal- ing of the senses.
Described as an enemy to emigration, his aversion it would seem, is giving way, compelled by persecution to leave the sunny meadows settled by the Pilgrims, and take up his abode with their descendants in the moun- tain state. In these glens and sequestered regions, may he continue to whistle unseen and unmolested, cheering the laborer in the field, and secure not only against the mimic voice of the Ethiopian, but the snares and mus- kets of the pale faced boy, and hunter.
But the snow-bird seems to love Vermont above all other parts of New England. You may see large flocks of them a short time before a snow storm; and some- times in the midst of a driving northeaster, they come near buildings ; and appear to revel in the dreary deso- lations around them. It is a small bird, of a light gray ; and sometimes almost white; nimble and lighting on the fences and tops of the weeds and corn stalks, rising
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above the snow, heedless of the whistling wind and the biting frost. They seem little disturbed by the approach of man, regarding them rather as friends and neighbors than otherwise. The Vermonters in turn give them a kind reception, paying little attention to their flocking, flirting gambols, permitting them to pursue their course, thinking their little bodies, fat as they are, unworthy of powder and shot. They die some other way than by the hands of man, for they are small game for the green mountain boys; and rather privileged by them too, as their only winged winter visiter during the reign of snow; happy and cheerful, but disappearing in the spring, and evading the utmost search of human eye.
In the early settlement of the state, wild pigeons were wonderfully plenty. So few are now found in the forests and on the mountains, that the account given by first settlers of their numbers and multiplication seems almost incredible.
The surveyor, Richard Hazen, who run the line between Massachusetts and this state in 1741, gave this account of the appearances which he met with to the westward of Connecticut river. " For three miles together, the pigeons' nests were so thick, that five hundred might have been told on the beech trees at one time; and could they have been counted on the hem- locks as well, I doubt not but five thousand might have been found at one turn round."*
" The following account was given me," says Dr. Wil-
* Williams.
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liams, " by one of the earliest settlers of Clarendon." " The number of pigeons was immense. Twenty-five nests were frequently to be found on one beech tree. The earth was covered with those trees ; and with hem- locks, thus loaded with the nests of pigeons. For an hundred acres together, the ground was covered with their dung to the depth of two inches. Their noise in the evening was extremely troublesome ; and so great that the traveler, where their nests were thick, could not get any sleep. 'About an hour after sunrise, they rose in such numbers as to darken the air.' When the young pigeons are grown to considerable bigness, before they can readily fly, it was common for the settlers to cut down the trees, and gather a horse load in a few minutes."
The progress of civilization and refinement; and the clearing of the hills and vallies have much lessened the number of these birds, or driven them to other regions.
Three or four species of the swallow are found in this part of the country ; the chimney swallow ; the barn, the ground, and the martin. The latter is the largest, and builds its nests under the eaves of barns and sheds ; seventy, and even a hundred are sometimes counted on the buildings of a single farmer. The ground swallow is the smallest ; and burrows into sand banks and the banks of rivers two or three feet, and there forms its nests.
The swallow is a social and musical little bird ; and its gyrations and evolutions over a level meadow in hay-
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season, twittering and chirping, would afford a gratifying spectacle, if he were not somewhat insulting to the hay- maker, foretelling with too much truth the forthcoming rain ; gracefully curving and rolling from side to side ; now in a straight line ; now turning at angles of various degrees, darting by within arm's length of the laborer.
The house, or chimney swallow is found, it is said, sometimes to take up its winter residence in hollow trees. - Two of these swallow trees are particularly noticed by Dr. Williams ; one at Middlebury, and the other at Bridport. They were large, hollow and decayed elms. Relative to the one at the former place, he had the in- formation from a man, who lived within twenty rods of it. His language is : "About the first of May, the swallows came out of it in large numbers about the mid- dle of the day, and soon returned. As the weather grew warmer they came out in the morning with a loud noise or roar ; and were soon dispersed. About half an hour before sundown, they returned in millions, circu- lating and circling two or three times round the tree ; and then descending like a stream, into a hole sixty feet from the ground. It was customary for persons in the vicinity to visit this tree, to observe the motions of these birds ; and when any person disturbed their operations by striking violently against the tree with their axes, the swallows would rush out in millions, and with a great noise. In November, 1791, the top of the tree was blown down twenty feet below where the swallows entered. They have since disappeared. Upon cutting
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down the remainder an immense quantity of excrements, quills and feathers were found; but no appearance of any nests."
Relative to the one at Bridport, the language of a man who lived near it, is : " The swallows were first ob- served to come out of the tree in the spring, about the time the leaves began to appear on the trees. From that season they came out in the morning, about half an hour after sunrise. They rushed out, like a stream, as big as the hole in the tree would admit ; and ascended in a perpendicular line until they were in height above the adjacent trees ; then assumed a circular motion, per- forming their revolutions two or three times ; but always (every time,) in a larger circle; and then disappeared in every direction. A little before sundown, they return- ed in immense numbers, forming several circular motions, and then descending like a stream into the hole whence they came out in the morning. About the middle of September, they were seen entering the tree for the last time. These birds were all of the species called the house, or chimney swallow. The hole in the tree at which they entered was about forty feet from the ground, and nine inches in diameter. The swallows made their first appearance in the spring ; and last appearance in the autumn in the vicinity of this tree, and the neighbor- ing inhabitants had no doubt but that they continued in it during the winter." .
From these interesting facts, it is probable that the house swallow in this part of our country sojourns generally during winter in hollow trees. There is
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evidence also that the ground swallow passes his winter quarters at the bottom of lakes, rivers and ponds.
The above named historian places the bobolink among the birds of Vermont. But its notes, it is believed, are rarely heard now in the meadows and fields.
The blue bird, the wren, the phebe, and robin, are the earliest summer birds of Vermont ; and the welcome harbingers of the return of spring. If they come to stay, and let their notes be heard day after day by the first of April, it is as much as the most ardent looker out for bare hills and vallies ; and to feel the balmy gales can anticipate, or flatter himself with being visited and greeted by such familiar and long absent acquaint- ance. If they alight upon his dwelling, and by their melody rouse him from his morning slumbers, how delightful the sounds! How animating the reflection thus raised that the reign of winter is closing; and that the free going to the fields is to be again enjoyed.
The howl of the wolf, once so familiar on these hills, is fast dying away ; and his prowling footsteps disappear- ing from the sheep-fold and barn-yard ; and the wasting of the cornfields by the growling bear now almost unknown. Many were the depredations committed by these ancient occupiers of the dark caverns of the green mountains, on the premises of the pioneer settlers. Here and there one lingers and by pinching hunger driven to madness, comes down to the cultivated fields and takes a peep at the threshhold of the husbandman. But the unexpected uproar created by his presumption puts him to flight with the precipitancy of the timid deer. A thou-
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sand dogs and as many men and boys with guns give him chase, and surrounding his retreat, analyze his lurking place, examining step by step every nook and corner, and subterfuge till he can no longer elude the search ; but stands forth in clear demonstration. The writer saw the skins of two or three bears thus pursued and killed in Ludlow, in the fall of 1841. In short the time will soon come when in Vermont wolves, bears, and deer will ' be among the things that were, but now have passed away.'
The fox and weasel and different kinds of squirrels continue to occupy their ground here, and make inroads on the labors of the husbandman ; the two first often : visiting nightly his premises and making prey of such barn-yard animals as they can master. But the frequent hunting-matches of the young men and boys are gradu- ally diminishing their number and rendering them less bold in their depredations. The beautiful grayer, to use ; a hunter's phrase, is still often seen by the way side, playing his pranks, leaping from branch to branch, and from tree to tree, with his broad tail curved over his back ; his acorn-like eye looking sharply, and uttering squeaking sounds as if he would frighten the traveler. Cowper's description of this little forester comes into the mind of every one who has read it, whenever the display of his features and nimble sportiveness are witnessed. But pursued unrelentingly by the sportsman, he has become comparatively scarce and coy ; being no more seen on the ridge and roof of the barn, or house of the farmer. Even the robin once so plenty and tame, and
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familiar about the orchards and dwellings, delighting the ear with his inimitable notes, and the eyes with his brilliant plumage, has become unfrequent and shy, retreating beyond the range and noise of the riffe, and the hands of the children of civilization and humanity. In some instances leaving the rural villages, and the premises of the husbandman, so dear to him, he seeks protection from the wary, licensed fowler in the crowded city with more humane and liberal regulations .*
The dendrology ; or technical description of the trees of Vermont, was not designed, nor will it be attempted in this work. In addition to what has been said on this subject, a few pages only will be added relative to the most common trees of the state. Evergreens are more or less the trees of the mountain range dividing the state ; and they are found to some extent, intermixed with other trees in all the towns. Pine, hemlock, spruce, fir and hacmatack with all their varieties. The greatest measure of a pine given by Dr. Williams is six feet diameter, and two hundred and seventy in height. It would be difficult to find many of this class now in Ver- · mont. Indeed the first growth of pines is mostly gone. Some provident farmers have preserved a few such for their own use ; old standards ; first settlers ; noble trees, towering far above their fellows of the forest. Hemlock
* At the dawn of a pleasant morning in April, the writer was surprised at the songs of robins on the houses in Hartford, Ct. which he had in vain listened for in the surrounding country. The cause was the high fine by the city authorities for killing that bird.
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trees grow faster than pine; and such quantities are found as to preclude the fear of their failing. For frames of buildings and other substantial purposes they furnish materials as valuable as the pine.
The maple, and beech, and birch with all their dif- ferent kinds are the principal hard-wood trees of the state. Chestnut, and oak, and walnut, and ash, and elm in their common varieties, are found chiefly on the banks of the rivers, and on the lake shore. The red cedar is not very often seen ; but the white cedar grows abun- dantly in the northwest part of the state ; and is much used for fences, being straight grained, and freely rifting.
The sugar maple is the glory of the Vermont forests, so rich and beautiful in their great variety of trees and shrubbery, and to the different heights to which they grow, and shapes which they assume. The color of their bark and lines and tinges of their foliage are almost endless in their diversities. The form of the maple and the intenseness of its foliage, the first to bud and leave out in the spring, and the first to fade in autumn, renders it a pleasing object of contemplation in itself. But the increasing use made of it for sugar and molasses, must greatly enhance its value and comeliness in the eyes of the Vermonters, on whose soil it stands pre-eminent and most frequent.
Pre-eminent and most frequent, this is true as a state ; although in some parts of New York, particularly the high-lands of Schoharie county, this noble tree is found in magnitude and height and frequency equal to any part of this state. Such significant names of neighbor-
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hoods and villages are found there as sap-bush-hill, and sap-hollow, where and on dutch-hill, the writer has seen as noble specimens of this tree as those given by Dr. Williams in the early periods of green mountain history ; five feet in diameter and from one to two hundred feet high.
The changes witnessed in the foliage of this tree are striking and admonitory, not to say melancholy. Its beautiful green becoming indigent, somewhat faded, approaches the brown; and before the close of the month, you may see here and there sprigs and branches of pale purple, indicative of the drawing to a close of the year, the end of life, and the winter of death. As the season advances, the days shortening, these purple spots, so to speak, become deeper and larger, contrasting with the green and brown, and forming a picture, which mocks the art of the painter to copy. Sometimes you may see the extremities of the branches tinged with a deep red, having the appearance, at a distance, of fire without the smoke, like Moses's bush burning but not consuming. Looking at a large collection of maples under this invisible and mysterious process of change ; at some of the sugar orchards, or long line of such trees by the roadside, sometimes witnessed in this state, must arrest you to pleasing if not to sober and salutary reflec- tions.
Forest trees are among the most beautiful objects of nature. They have so been viewed in all ages of the world. Hence the frequent allusions to them by writers of various descriptions. By ancient writers especially
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they have been so often and in such circumstances named, that certain species of them may be regarded as classical. Homer goes often to the forests for images and illustrations ; comparing the armies mustering round Troy, to the leaves of the trees in the spring, and the cutting off of nations and armies, to their falling in the autumn ; the falling of a renowned warrior in battle, to the uprooting and overturning of a mountain oak or pine. It was near a beech tree that the contest was most violent on the plains of Troy ; and to which Ajax and his associates pursued Hector and his followers. Mentioned in such circumstances ; and as a limit to which the Greeks carried their triumphs and set bounds to their enemies ; it becomes an object interesting in itself. The beech is also mentioned by Virgil, as are the oak, and elm, and ash. The Book of Inspiration speaks often of trees ; and many kinds are named ; but most frequently, the locust and cypress, and the cedars of Lebanon. The latter being very durable and solid, is made an emblem of immortality. The locust tree is cultivated in Vermont ; and in some parts is found in abundance.
In modern times, also, the most celebrated spot in Europe, in a military point of view, and to be classic ground in all future time, had its tree, the Wellington tree, marking his post in the carnage of battle, being scathed and perforated with balls. But it is no longer that tree. It has been cut down ; and a royal chair made of it for the sovereign of England. But it was
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bad taste which led to this metamorphosis and transpo- sition. Better had it been to have suffered to stand on the spot where it gained its name, an object of curiosity and veneration to the visitor of that field, as long as the soil made rich by the blood of the brave might nourish its roots. It is to be regretted that the kind of tree, thus designated, has not been preserved. Of what kind was the tree near which Wellington took his stand in front of his army at Waterloo and gave his orders ?
In traveling through Vermont, over her hills and mountains, and by the margin of her rivers, the eye is delighted with the beauty and variety of shapes, which different trees take. You will see the spruce and fir often going up by a gradual diminishing of its branches to a point, an almost perfect cone. Then again you will see them bulging; that is, the boughs increasing gradually upwards half-way, and thence decreasing to the top, taking the form of a circular oblong, and seeming like the work of art. The branches and twigs of these trees and their kindred hemlocks and pine are sometimes so closely interwoven that at a distance they appear a solid impervious mass, standing frequent on the snow clad hills, like green pointed spires and turrets on the white summit and towers of some magnificent edifice. Near trees of such symmetry and comely proportions, you may see those of great irregularity ; and yet by the contrast and variety increasing the interest of the scene and landscape. You may see the huge hemlock with disconnected branches and broken tops ; the stately birch with here and there a stinted bough, and crowded out of its upright
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posture by some shock or infringing of its neighbor felled by the axeman.
Sometimes you see this diversity in trees of the same species. The elm here stands erect and shoots up high without branches, its summit only being surmounted by a few, gracefully curving and pendant in the form of an umbrella. By its side stands another, or rather leans ; its body short and making a sharp angle with the surface ; its branches low and thick, and far spreading. Near this a third sends forth from a short but erect trunk, a score of slender, graceful branches, running up to a great height and gradually diverging like an inverted cone.
In Berlin, Ct. near the first tavern site on the old New Haven and Hartford road stand two venerable elms, whose branches have waved in the winds of two centu- ries, but very dissimilar in their form and appearance. The body of one of them is short ; between five and six feet through, containing buried under its surface some two dozen bridle hooks for the weary horse of the traveler, or of the tavern lounger ; but remarkable par- ticularly for its enormous top under the pressure of which it stands inclined. It consists (the top) of twelve or fifteen huge branches, fantastically interwoven, crossing, wooing and shunning each other in such various ways as to bewilder the eye to trace them, letting down their low boughs almost to the ground, and covering an area of about eight rods in diameter. It is an object of curiosity to the now and then singular traveler in this good old way in which his fathers walk-
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ed ; long since deserted for the turnpike, and that now for the cars of the railroad, hurrying the dozing, nod- ding through swamps and gulfs ; and over cow- traps, and quagmires, entertained by whizzing, boiling water, the nose and eyes being accommodated with smoke and embers.
The other is remarkable for the symmetry and comeli- ness of its parts ; and the beauty of its appearance as a whole, and its lofty height ; its stock being erect; and limbs commencing near the ground and shooting up circularly to a great height ; gradually spreading and then converging to a point.
Near them also once stood a majestic pine, such as is rarely seen even now in the green mountains, or in the granite state, planted for ornament, and having weathered the storms of nearly two centuries ; the admiration of the stranger passenger, affording ample room for a score of blackbirds in its lofty branches to build their nests within the sight, but beyond the tres- passing hand of the truant school boy, it fell at last a prey to the tyrant alcohol. Cut down and converted into building materials, it went to repair the buildings of the rum-drinking and prescribing physician for his ineffectual, and even aggravating efforts to repair the rum-broken constitution and health of the owner, his patient ! What then would that pestilential destroyer spare ? Shade and ornamental tree, it is hoped now in the prevalence of temperance, you will no longer be subverted by the stream, " whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage."
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The beech is perhaps more abundant in Vermont than any other tree. It grows fast and becomes a large and often a beautiful tree; but as timber, rots soon if exposed to the weather. As it regards the United States, this tree seems to be a lover of a northern, cold climate ; being seen not very often as far south as Con- necticut, and less frequent in lower latitudes. It is found in every nook and corner of the state ; and the same may be said of New Hampshire ; but not of any other entire state, being confined to the northern and hilly portions of Massachusetts and New York. But it was found, it seems, in Italy, in what abundance, Virgil has not informed us, although he has so described it as to leave little doubt of its identity even with that growing on the green mountains (potulæ) with wide spreading branches.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
Vermont well watered .- Water power .- Little subject to drought. -Torrents .- Floods in the spring .- Devastations by water .- On the banks of the Connecticut .- Passage between cakes of ice. Droughts .- Rivers .- Otter creek,-Onion .- Lamoille .- West river .- Valley through which it passes .- Its channel in sum- mer .- In the spring and in floods .- Snow in different seasons and places .- Travel over drifts .- Snow bridges .- Seasons of plunging and slumping .- Funerals, and tombs for winter accom- modations .- The winter of 1842-3 remarkable. - March and April .- A great flood .- Its ravages .- Prevalence of the ery- sipelas in some parts of the state .- A season of suffering .- A young man perishing in the snow near Windsor.
VERMONT is well watered. The innumerable foun- tains in her mountains and hills send forth streams and rivulets and rivers in almost every direction, affording water power and the means of irrigating the soil. It is thus less subject to the diminution of its crops by the influence of droughts. The channels of the streams and rivers are filled in the spring as the snow dissolves and the water descends from the mountains. Innumera- ble are the torrents rushing down from the mountains as the warm sun of April, and the showers overcome the frost, and accumulated snows of almost half a year.
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