ii8 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



good deal of unpleasant black smoke, features that its 

 resinous nature would lead us to anticipate. 



The; Scotch pine rises high into the air and has but 

 few lateral branches. The flat-topped mass of foliage 

 throws a strong shade, the ground is carpeted with 

 the dead leaves that, brown and dry, are strewn around, 

 while the air is fragrant, and especially in the warm sunshine, 

 with the aromatic odour given forth. The stillness in a 

 pine forest may often be so profound that a sense of 

 awe creeps over us ; loud talking seems a profanation, 

 and we may hear distinctly the patter of the squirrel's 

 feet as he scampers up a trunk some trees away from 

 the intruders upon his domain. At other times the wind, 

 unfelt below, makes a subdued and solemn murmuring 

 amongst the tree-tops. Wordsworth, ever open to Nature- 

 observation, ever in sympathy with every phase of Nature- 

 charm tells how 



At every impulse of the moving breeze 



The fir-grove murmurs with a sea-hke sound. 



His comparison is a very apt one, the soothing, slumbrous 

 sound being very suggestive of the breaking of the surf on 

 a distant beach. 



The trunks, eighty to a hundred feet high, are 

 enwrapped in a rough red bark that scales off in large 

 thin patches. A group of Scotch pines at sunset, when the 

 last warm rays are striking upon their rugged trunks, 

 turning them into glowing crimson, is wonderfully striking. 

 Where the trees are more or less isolated, having plenty of 

 light and air, they branch near the ground, but when, as 

 is ordinarily the case, they are part of a thick forest their 



