1851.] Shelter for Stock. 5G5 



or snow bank, I look around me and see a great uneven country, 

 rocky hills and glaciers covered with snow, myriads of crystal gems 

 sparkling in the light of the pale moon, which shoots its rays 

 through the crisp air, making it almost as light as day. I look sea- 

 ward, and see a long plain of ice melting into the horizon, dotted 

 all over with huge towering bergs — nothing more. All nature is in 

 the repose of death. I am too far from the shore to hear the 

 crunching of the tables as they rise and fall with the tide, or the 

 roar of the distant thunder, as some huge track opens through the 

 heavy floes. There is no animal to cross my path, no tree among 

 whose stiif branches the wind can moan. There is no son^r of bird 

 to enliven the scene, no wild beast to howl. I stand there alone, 

 the only representative of God's living world — the only being that 

 has life or can move. Every sound that I hear, every motion that I 

 see, is made by myself. I hear nothing but the pulsations of my 

 own heart, my own footsteps, or now and then possibly, in the dis- 

 tance, the deep rumbling of a snow-bank. The sensation of utter 

 loneliness and isolation creeps over me. My heart beats as it rushes 

 the blood through the sensitive organization of the ear ; I am 

 oppressed as with discordant sounds. Silence has ceased to be nega- 

 tive ; it has become sternly positive. I hear, see and feel it. Its 

 presence is unendurable. I spring to my feet : I plant them heavily 

 in the snow to drown its presence, and I rush back to the vessel, 

 glad to find even refuge in its dull life of horrid inactivity," 



SHELTER FOR STOCK. 



Many farmers will neglect their animals in winter, feedinjr them 

 from the stock-yard, in the open air. This practice is not only bar- 

 barous, but is very expensive. It takes a third more hay to carry a 

 cow through the winter by this method, and with the best of hay she 

 will not come out in good condition. Warm stables are a substitute 

 for fodder, and an animal sheltered in them is much more easily 

 kept in high flesh. Then, by stabling animals, we can save all the 

 manure, which is quite too large an item for farmers in this age to 

 throw away. Many who have large farms, and do not wish to build 

 a barn large enough to hold all the hay and grain, build several 



