ALONE IN THE FOREST. 153 



caution, for fear my leg, on breaking tlirough, might be 

 saluted from the inside by some deadly snake. The only 

 sign of animal life, however, I found about the tree, save a 

 few millipedes and land snails, were some lizard-eggs in a 

 crack, about the size of those of a humming-bird. 



r scrambled down on gravelly beaches, and gazed up the. 

 green avenues of the brooks. I sat amid the Balisiers and 

 Aroumas, above still blue pools, bridged by huge fallen 

 trunks, or with wild Pines of half-a-dozen kinds set in rows : 

 I watched the shoals of fish play in and out of the black 

 logs at the bottom : I gave myself up to the simple enjoy- 

 ment of looking, careless of what I looked at, or what I 

 thought about it all. There are times when the mind, like 

 the body, had best feed, gorge if you will, and leave the 

 digestion of its food to the unconscious alchemy of nature. 

 It is as unwise to be always saying to oneself, " Into what 

 pigeon-hole of my brain ought I to put this fact, and what 

 conclusion ought I to draw from it ? " as to ask your teeth 

 how they intend to chew, and your gastric juice how it 

 intends to convert your three courses and a dessert into 

 chyle. Whether on a Scotch moor or in a Tropic forest, it 

 is well at times to have full faith in Xature ; to resign your- 

 self to her, as a child upon a holiday; to be still and let 

 her speak. She knows best what to say. 



And yet I could not altogether do it that day. There was 



