SALT MAESHES 



emerge from their winter mantle a uniform 

 drab or yellowish-gray, lighter in the sunlight 

 and darker in the shadow. 



When the tender leaves of the willow are 

 first showing, early in May, and the dog's- 

 tooth violets are spreading their yellow car- 

 pets on the islands, the marsh shows its first 

 sign of returning life by patches of dark green 

 in the black-grass zone. A little later and a 

 tinge of pale green appears on the borders of 

 the creeks, where the thatch is sending up a 

 few sparse sprouts. By the middle of May the 

 creeks, large and small, are edged with the 

 pale green of the young thatch, a green with 

 much yellow in it, while the black-grass is now 

 even darker than before and has taken on a 

 bluish tint. Only here and there in the great 

 middle zone is there a suspicion of pale green 

 in the universal drab, but by the first of June 

 this pale greenness has spread in bands and 

 patches over the marsh, and has become dark 

 green interspersed and tinged with the drab 

 of the old rowan. And so the seasons come 

 and go and the marsh is always beautiful. 



205 



