416 WILD FLOWEES OF SEPTEMBEE. 



noble Rifaels, stretching northward in grand array. 

 A thin blueish mist lay upon the horizon above the 

 ocean, and this was reflected as a girdle to its white 

 shining surface, while lucid vapours in the atmosphere 

 scarcely perceptible, were yet plainly inverted in the 

 sea like enormous pillars sinking a thousand fathoms 

 down. Nature was sinking into repose upon the dun 

 wilds of her furzy coverts, becoming tintless and misty 

 as the pavement of a deserted cathedral in the sombre 

 twilight, and no sound of bird or insect gave an im- 

 pulse to the stilled air. An isolated cloud took a 

 position before the orb of the sun and veiled it in its 

 slow descent, yet leaving a splendid line of glory above. 

 Presently the golden light brightened, extended, and 

 was reflected in long waving lines like a second sum- 

 mer sky below. The sun was gone, the mountains 

 sombre, and the surface of the sea saddened, but a 

 bright after-glow still tinged the sky with softened 

 splendour, like the memory of past joys long gleaming 

 in the mind. 



