176 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, 
Again in winter, though no doubt the 
living tenants of the woods are much less 
numerous, many of our birds being then far 
away in the dense African forests, on the 
other hand those which remain are much 
more easily visible. We can follow the birds 
from tree to tree, and the Squirrel from 
bough to bough. 
It requires little imagination to regard 
trees as conscious beings, indeed it is almost 
an effort not to do so. 
“The various action of trees rooting them- 
selves in inhospitable rocks, stooping to look 
into ravines, hiding from the search of glacier 
winds, reaching forth to the rays of rare sun- 
shine, crowding down together to drink at 
sweetest streams, climbing hand in hand 
among the difficult slopes, opening in sudden - 
dances among the mossy knolls, gathering 
- Into companies at rest among the fragrant 
fields, ghding in grave procession over the 
heavenward ridges —nothing of this can be 
conceived among the unvexed and unvaried 
felicities of the lowland forest; while to all 
these direct sources of greater beauty are 
