midnight
A forest , thus fallen , presents for a time a picture of melancholy aspect . It suggests the idea of some grand battle-field , where the serried hosts , by a terrible discharge of `` grape and canister , '' have been struck down on the instant : not one being left to look to the bodies of the slain -- neither to bury nor remove them . Like the battle-field , too , it becomes the haunt of wolves and other wild beasts ; who find among the fallen trunks , if not food , a fastness securing them from the pursuit both of hound and hunter . Here in hollow log the black she-bear gives birth to her loutish cubs , training them to climb over the decaying trunks ; here the lynx and red couguar choose their cunning convert ; here the racoon rambles over his beaten track ; the sly opossum crawls warily along the log , or goes to sleep among the tangle of dry rhizomes ; while the gaunt brown wolf may be often heard howling amidst the ruin , or in hoarse bark baying the midnight moon . In a few years , however , this sombre scene assumes a more cheerful aspect . An under-growth springs up , that soon conceals the skeletons of the dead trees : plants and shrubs appear -- often of different genera and species from those that hitherto usurped the soil -- and the ruin is no longer apparent . The mournful picture gives place to one of luxuriant sweetness : the more brilliant sheen of the young trees and shrubs , now covering the ground , and contrasting agreeably with the sombre hues of the surrounding forest .