THE HEATH. 101 



can be more warm and comfortable. They fold 

 their bed together, tying it up into a roll that may 

 be grasped by a man's arms, which, if necessary, 

 they carry with them to the place where they 

 mean to sleep the night following. If it becomes 

 too dry and compressed, its former elasticity is 

 restored by a little moisture." 



You have, I dare say, often stopped under a 

 clump of fir-trees, and listened with pleasure to 

 the wind murmuring through the long wiry leaves, 

 and sounding like the roar of the distant sea ; but 

 did you ever form a conjecture as to the reason 

 why the leaves should be so different in form from 

 those of most other trees ? Now, if you look at 

 the stunted shrubs around us, and think of them 

 in connection with the fir-tree, you will soon dis- 

 cover that this peculiar structure was not given 

 without design. 



First, we have two or three different sorts of 

 heath, all of which, besides having very tough 

 roots, are furnished with branches, which, though 

 slight, are so flexible that, by yielding to the 

 blast, they escape uninjured, let the storm rage 

 ever so violently. The leaves are equally well 

 adapted to the sort of place in which the heath 

 flourishes; they are small, very little flattened, 

 and extremely rigid; in consequence of which 

 the wind passes through the bush without either 

 tearing or scattering them. Perhaps you may 

 find a few junipers here and there ; but they, as 

 well as the heath, have leaves so constructed as 

 to offer no resistance to the wind, and on this rely 

 for their safety. The Furze, which is thickly 

 beset with rigid sharp-pointed prickles in place of 

 leaves, upon which the strongest wind can take no 



