In a Sea-side Forest. 181 



hollies have grown around the now imprisoned 

 branches. And, as if not content with such 

 irregularities as these, other hollies have assumed 

 even animal-like shapes; the resemblance in one 

 instance to an elephant's head and trunk being 

 very marked. Even the stately and proper-grown 

 hollies have their trunks incased in strangely 

 wrinkled barks, suggestive of a plastic mass that 

 has suddenly hardened. 



Why all this irregularity I leave to others. 

 There was no patent explanation for him who ran 

 to read, and I was puzzled at the outset to know 

 in what direction to commence guessing. This is 

 an entertainment, when idling in the woods, the 

 rambler should not despise. Our best outings are 

 when we wear other head-gear than a thinking-cap. 

 So far as the crooked hollies are concerned, it will 

 be time enough next winter to muse over the 

 conclusions of the botanist. 



Equally startling in such wonderland is it to see 

 a thrifty blueberry bush growing from the trunk 

 of a tree, so high in the air that you need a ladder 

 to reach it. This bush annually bears a full crop 

 of excellent fruit. That I am at last in a bit of 



16 



