MDDM Ch. 60 Mountains of Wales

[Larry Carswell]

"In the strong twlight over the Mountains of Wales, draining of light League
upon League of darkly forested Peaks...to the eye familiar, the occasional
interruption pf a Cabin or Plantation...chimney Smoke, a gray patch of
girdl'd Trees amid the green pervading...

Excerpted from http://www.access.wvu.edu/class/wvhistory/html/UNIT09.htm

" Under the old system, a farmer cleared a place for a homestead, and used
the timber for construction of a cabin, outbuildings, and fences.

They grew corn in amongst the trees, which were girdled
<http://www.access.wvu.edu/class/wvhistory/images/283.jpg> and allowed to
die."

We are  in the first stage of agricultural settlement of virgin forest.

585.12 "They have caught up with this era in the settlement of this west."
'This era' occured around 1680 in the 'west' where I live 40 miles from
Plymouth Massachusetts.
William Cronon in the book "Changes in the Land" has described the
devastating long term ecological consequences of this agricultural
technique. Much of the topsoil around here went rushing down to the sea
before 1750.

   The first paragraph  appeals as an incantation, with  sweep and grand
style (Miltonian) , it conjures a redemption without salvation, a romantic
nihilism...that you all might drown in the sea of "not knowing" how vast,
and awaken to a world where the wind in the dark hollow is more potent and
alive then that flaccid cock in you hand.

Regards,
Larry C.