A TEMPEST. 15 



in one of these enchanting places when the sun 

 came out and the zenith was left free from clouds. 

 The effects were so beautiful and striking that, 

 although words give but a hint of them, they 

 are ineffaceable in memory. Through the swamp 

 runs a small stream. As the day was compara- 

 tively warm no ice encumbered the clear water. 

 At one point it spread out over a broad bed of 

 mud, from which rose a thick growth of grass, 

 watercress and ranunculus. All three plants 

 were vivid green and offered a strange contrast 

 to the arabesque of snow which framed the 

 brook. 



Wild as was the storm and stimulating as 

 were its direct buffeting and indirect effect of 

 form and color, the day was as remarkable on 

 another account as it was for the tempest. I 

 saw eighty- five birds, representing nine species. 



Several times I heard crows, flying through 

 the driving snow, calling to each other in its con- 

 fusion. In the pines at the summit of the first 

 high hill were two little brown creepers flying 

 from trunk to trunk and exploring busily the 

 bark on the sheltered side of the trees. When 

 they left a tree the storm whirled them away like 

 dry leaves, but they promptly headed toward 

 the wind and sped back under the lee of some 

 sheltering tree to its but, the point where their 

 explorations always begin. They kept track 



