PAUL AND VIRGINIA. I25 



their gray and greenifli hair, with their faces en- 

 tirely black ; fome fufpend themfelves by the tail, 

 balancing themfelves in the air ; others leap from 

 branch to branch, carrying their young ones in 

 their arms. Never has the murderous fiifil feared 

 thefe peaceful children of Nature. Here, nothing 

 is heard but founds of joy, the unknown warblings 

 and the chirping of fome fouthern birds, which 

 repeat the echos of thefe forefts from afar. The 

 river, which flows bubbling over a rocky bed, 

 through the trees, refleâis, here and there, in it's 

 limpid ftream, their venerable mafles of verdure 

 and of (hade, as well as the gambols of the happy 

 inhabitants : about a thoufand paces from hence, 

 it precipitates itfelf down different ftories of the 

 rock, and forms, in it's fall, a fmooth (beet of 

 water, as clear as cryftal, which rolling down, 

 breaks itfelf amidft billows of foam. A thoufand 

 confafed noifes proceed from thefe tumultuous 

 waters, and when difperfed by the winds of the 

 foreft, they fometimes fly to a diftance, and fome- 

 times they ru(h on the ear, all at once, and pro- 

 duce a fl:unning found, like that of the bells of a 

 cathedral. The air, continually refrefhed by the 

 motion of this fl;ream, keeps up, upon the banks 

 of the river, notwithftanding the burning heats of 

 Summer, a verdure, and a coolnefs, which is fel- 

 dom found in this ifland, even on the mountain 

 tops. 



At 



