

shadows have sunk into these sunless 

 depths ; what reflections of waving branches, 

 what sittings of subdued light, what hushed 

 echoes of the forgotten summers that per- 

 ished here ages ago? 



In such a place, at such an hour, one 

 feels the most subtle and the most searching 

 spell which Nature ever throws over those 

 that seek her; a spell woven of many 

 charms, magical potions, and powerful 

 incantations. The quiet of the place, awful 

 with the unbroken silence of centuries ; the 

 soft, half light, which conceals more than 

 it discloses; the retreating trunks of trees 

 interlacing their branches against invasion 

 from light or heat or sound; the steep 

 ravine, receding in darker and darker dis- 

 tance, until it seems like one of the fabled 

 passages to the under world: the wide, 

 shadowy pool, into which no sunlight falls, 

 and in which night itself seems to sleep 

 under the very eyes of day all these 

 things speak a language which even the 

 dullest must understand. As I sit musing, 

 conscious of the darkest shadows and deep- 

 79 



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