THE CORN-RIGS OF BEAMSLEY FELL 103 



seem suited for digging, perhaps for making a passage 

 to a fresh cell, whose honey is unexhausted. 



The pseudo-chrysalis is sluggish, with a yellow, 

 horny skin, and from it the true pupa at length issues. 

 The only perfect Beetle which Fabre reared came out 

 in September, but the Insect does not show itself nor 

 seek its mate till the following spring. 



THE CORN-RIGS OF BEAMSLEY FELL. 



April 15, 1895. I look out from my study-windows 

 across Wharfedale, and see faint but unmistakable 

 tokens of the advance of spring. The level meadows 

 in the floor of the valley are green, and not grey as 

 they were a month ago. The woods, which all winter 

 through were of uniform black, are now resolved into 

 masses of feathery trees, softly pencilled with brown 

 and green. A grove of poplars in Denton Park is 

 distinguished by the colour and the branching at a 

 distance of a full mile. 



When we come to close quarters we see the green 

 buds of the Sycamore, the brown buds of the Poplar 

 and the russet flowers of the Elm. The trees which 

 slept are waking. 



It is near sun-down, and the sun shines straight 

 down this reach of the valley, bringing out with his 

 horizontal rays the faintest surface-markings. On the 

 opposite hill-side the drainage furrows are ruled in 

 close and regular lines across the meadows and 

 pastures. I can also distinguish much slighter 

 furrows here and there, which are corn-rigs, the 



