SNOW-COVERED FOREST. 91 



branches of an Apple-tree, on the upper side of 

 which on every limb, bough, and twig was 

 strewn the crystal whiteness. The air was 

 motionless, no wind having stirred to shake the 

 marvellous fabric. And hence the reason why 

 the clustered snow-flakes had poised themselves 

 upon the highest, upright points of twigs, gathering 

 there into small white balls. 



But now, lifting our eyes forest-wards, we take 

 in, as the vision ranges over the distant stretch of 

 spreading woods, a scene of gathering splendour. 

 The foreground forms of Oak and Beech for a 

 moment attract attention to the rimy beauty of 

 their wintry boughs and twigs ; but looking on- 

 wards and outwards, where the woods rise one 

 over the other, our admiration culminates in the 

 magnificent prospect which is afforded by the mass 

 of snow-covered branches, presenting though so 

 distant not a confused glare of white, but an 

 appearance as of a vast sheet of fairy-like fret- 

 work, like that which would be produced if a 

 mist which had been hanging in the air and 

 obscuring the tree-heads from view had suddenly 

 been condensed and precipitated on the forest, 



