It was a vast forest The trees in it were mostly sal, but there were other trees too. Their tops and leaves ran into one another to form an endless line. This vast ocean of foliage, without break, without a hole, without, in fact, the smallest opening to let in light, stretched forth miles after miles, and miles after miles again, throwing up waves upon waves of green on the air. Below, there was the deepest gloom; light was dim here even when the sun was at its height. It was a fearful wilderness and no man ever stepped into it. Save the eternal rustle of leaves and the yells of wild animals, no sound was ever heard within it.
Such was this forest,—vast, gloomy, and dense; and the time we are speaking of was midnight; and a very dark night too, even out of the woods—where nothing could be seen. The gloom within the forest was black like the darkness in the womb of the earth.
Birds and beasts were wholly silent. Myriads of beasts, birds, worms and insects lived in the woods, but not one made a sound. You might rather imagine the darkness that was there, but you could not think of that dead stillness of the wood in a world which so much
