Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/237

ance which might have been expected from the soil that contains the remains of so many thousands of its giant predecessors. The creek is all protected by willows on its banks, and many other forest trees, including oak, silver poplar, sycamores, and Scotch pines. There is a nice garden and orchard, and a tennis court, which we think will fairly challenge comparison with any on the Peninsula. In the future the Bay will be far lovelier than it is now: the old stumps will gradually disappear, and the many old buildings connected with the mill be destroyed, and covered with the sheltering grass whose silent march conquers so many scars on the bosom of old mother earth. Smooth and smiling with a peaceful English look will be the Duvauchelle’s of our grandchildren. But to those of the present generation, by whom the wilderness was reclaimed, these very stumps have all an interest. “From this tree,” your guide will say, “Came all the fluming for the mill; from that we cut 2100 feet of 8 by 1 boards from a single length.” To them each old stump is a reminiscence of a victory of industry, a symbol of honest profit for hard toil, a part of the old Peninsula life which has, with its many toils and troubles and pleasures, passed away for ever amongst the things that were. This is a valley which formerly supported a few hundred pigeons and a score or two of wild pigs, most of which were unfit for human consumption unless under very trying circumstances.

The great floods of 1886 did much damage in Duvauchelle’s. A tremendous slip from the Okain’s road covered the rich alluvial flat with clay, and the creek brought down boulders and rubbish till the woolshed was threatened, fences covered to the top rail, and much good pasture ruined for the time. Many of the young gum trees died from the lower portion of their trunks being covered, and it will be