290 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



thefe coloured vegetables, to correfb the prejudice 

 with which fo many are hurried away, that in the 

 Indies only the Sun gives a magnificent colouring 

 to plants. But nothing, in my opinion, equals 

 the beautiful green of the plants of the North, in 

 Spring. 1 have frequently admired, in particular, 

 that of the birch, of the turf, and of the moffes, 

 fome of which are glazed with violet and purple. 

 The folemn firs themfelves, then burfl; into fef- 

 toons of the moft delicate green ; and when they 

 come to throw, from the extremity of their 

 branches, the yellow tufts of flamina, they appear 

 like vaft pyramids, loaded all over with little 

 lamps. 



We encountered no obflacle in travcrfing their 

 forefts. Sometimes there lay in the way an aged 

 birch, laid low by the hand of Time, and inter- 

 nally confumed by the vvorai ; but in ilepping on 

 the rind, it fupports you like a piece of thick 

 leather. The wood of thefe birches decays very 

 fafi:, and their bark, which no humidity is able to 

 corrupt, is carried away, on the melting of the 

 fnows, into the lakes, where it fwims about all in 

 one piece. As to the firs, when they fall, humi- 

 dity and the moffes confume them in a very little 

 time. This country is interfeded with great 

 lakes, which every where prefent new means of 

 communication, as they penetrate far into the 



land 



