62 HAKMONIES. 



the tree regularly from distance to distance ; often they 

 embrace it so closely as to choke it, and cause the leaves 

 to fall off. so that it stretches out its dead mo-antic arms 

 like branches of white coral, among the fresh verdure of 

 the forest, — a jDicture of death, surprising us in the 

 midst of the most blooming life : frequently they give 

 the old trunk a new covering of leaves, so that the 

 same tree appears clothed in several different kinds of 

 foliage* 



So, if space permitted, we might depict the brown 

 bear emerging from his winter retreat in the dark pine 

 forests of Scandinavia ; or the white bear seated on a 

 solitary iceberg in the Polar Sea ; or the whale spouting 

 in the same frost-bound waters, and pursued by the har- 

 poon of his relentless persecutors ; or the moose impri- 

 soned in the " yard " which he has himself formed by 

 treading down the successive snows in the lofty woods of 

 America ; or the chamois upon the peaks of the Alps, with 

 the eagle sweeping over him as he gazes contemptuously 

 down on the jager far below ; or the patient camel toiling 

 along the unbounded waste of tawny sand ; or the kangaroo 

 bounding over the Australian scrub ; or the seal basking 

 in his rocky cavern, while the surf is dashing high on the 

 cliffs around ; or the wild-duck reposing at the margin of 

 a smooth river, when the red light of evening is reflected 

 in the line left by the tall and almost meeting trees over- 

 head ; or a group of snow-white egrets standing motion- 

 less in the shallows of a reedy lake at dawn of day ; or 



* Travels of Prince Adalbert in Brazil, p. 15, et seq. 



