184 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



rising and sinking, as if life was to them only a scene 

 of moving and busy preparation for something to come. 

 Now and then the halcyon, or kingfisher, with a note 

 that resembles a watchman's rattle, may be seen stand 

 ing on a leafless branch of a tree, that extends over the 

 wave, silently watching for his prey. His home is 

 among the rocks of the shore, and he has learned'his 

 discordant notes from the raging billows, with which he 

 loves to contend. He delights in the sound of the 

 waters; and has borrowed the hues of his plumage 

 from the azure that overspreads the surface of the great 

 deep. 



There is an aspect of desolation about the sea-shore 

 that harmonizes with the plaintive sounds that are 

 always blended with the murmuring waves; but nature 

 has strewed it with thousands of beautiful things, from 

 the huge rock that defends the shore, to the minutest 

 shells that are scattered at our feet. Sea-mosses, of the 

 most variegated colors and forms, have been washed 

 upon the sands ; and pebbles of white and red quartz 

 and green and yellow feldspar, have been ground to 

 perfect smoothness by the washings of centuries. Mill 

 ions of curiously wrought sea-shells, of different species, 

 are strewed among the red, yellow, purple, and white 

 gravel. Every spot is filled with microscopic wonders, 

 and many are the fragments that tell of the mysterious 

 productions, that luxuriate in the depths of the sea. 



The banks of earth, that gird a part of the shore, 

 have been so often assailed by storms, that but little 

 vegetation covers their sloping sides. But flowers of 

 rare beauty may be found clustering there, where nature 

 has planted many a species that refuses to grow far from 

 the briny spray of the ocean. Lupines, with their erect 

 spikes of blue and lilac, are conspicuous in their sea- 



