Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/111

 Almost the entire face of Virginia at the time of the first exploration was concealed by prim&aelig;val forests. The earliest adventurers exclaimed in terms of admiration and astonishment at the size and height and variety of the trees. One witness expressed the opinion of all of his companions when he said, that the new country presented to view the finest timber that the world afforded, and that this timber was adapted to the greatest multiplicity of purposes, whether in the building of ships, or the erection and ornamentation of houses. Freedom from undergrowth was one of the most notable features of the original woods of Virginia, and the same characteristic is observed to-day in a modified form in every forest in the State, growing upon land which has never been cleared. In the beginning, the absence of undergrowth was partially attributable to the Indian custom of burning the leaves with a view to capturing whole herds of deer by surrounding them with a belt of fire, through which it was difficult for them to escape. It was by similar conflagrations that the prairies of the West were denuded, but so full of moisture was the atmosphere of Virginia on account of its proximity to the ocean, and so finely adapted to certain forms of vegetable life was its soil, that the annual firings of the Indians did not make any impression upon its vast forests beyond the destruction of many of the smaller trees. If the testimony of a warrior, who was captured on the Rappahannock by Smith, can be accepted as sound, these firings were confined to the country extending from the Blue Ridge to the sea; when he was asked as to who inhabited the land beyond the mountains, he replied, the sun, and further than this he