18 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



mark. The latches of the doors fasten upon the hands, 

 as we attempt to open them. Every thing we take 

 anto our hands is like a mass of indissoluble ice. The 

 whole business of the day is to keep ourselves from 

 freezing. There is no ceremony in the house; all the 

 inmates gather round the fire, and talk of nothing but 

 the weather. 



In the almost deserted streets we see no loitering at 

 ^corners, and no gathering in the porches of the public- 

 ihouses. Every one is hurrying onward, with face 

 ;averted from the wind, his garments muffled closely 

 around him, and he hardly deigns to recognize a pass 

 ing acquaintance ; or, if he be saluted, to make him a 

 ireply, in his haste to get to his journey's end. All are 

 Tapidly moving ; even the most indolent seem to be 

 .suddenly capable of speed. The loaded teams that 

 pass along the streets, are creaking like a band of 

 musical instruments. The cattle are whitened with 

 frost, and long beards of icicles are hanging from their 

 chins. 



The earth is white with snow, and the sun casts a 

 ibright but ineffectual beam over the wide glittering 

 [plain. Not a single crystal of hoarfrost melts upon 

 the window-glass, so powerless are the sun's rays ; but 

 it accumulates all the day, until the glass has lost its 

 transparency. Long icicles have made their appear 

 ance suddenly, dependent from different parts of the 

 ,roof. All the eaves of the houses are fringed with 

 ithese icicles, of various lengths, glittering like so many 

 precious jewels, in the light of the sun. Smaller ones 

 are hanging from the branches of the trees, and wide 

 glistening sheets of ice have incrusted the springy sides 

 of the hills. 



There is a long volume of fog rolled in heaps upon 



