THE COAT OF MANY COLOUBS. 291 



to America that afternoon by some other road, for stepping 

 westward 



' seemed to me 

 A verj' drizzly destiny.' 



" Next morning, under a brilliant sunshine, the autum- 

 nal glories of the woods came out in full force. Crags 

 and lichen-covered rocks, and rich moist patches of mossy 

 verdure, scarcely seen through the umorageous screen of 

 summer, were now distinctly visible through the clear 

 amber-coloured foliage of the birch trees, which con- 

 trasted well with the russet oak and the darker green of 

 the pines and hollies. Ben Venue was in all his glory, 

 magnificently lighted up, yet deeply contrasted in light 

 and shade, every projecting crag having its long dark 

 shadow stretching westwards, and many cavernous hollows 

 being still in deepest gloom ; while at every step the 

 birches were waving their golden tresses, or showering 

 down leafy honours that emblazoned the very earth we 

 trod on. There is no such path in California nor the 

 Bathurst Mountains, for such is invisible to those whose 

 greedy restless eye is searching for earthly gold. 



" . . . . When we came to the open space of flattish 

 ground, odorous with Myrica gale, which we had to cross 

 occasionally on our homeward way as a nearer cut to the 

 Macfarlanes', we made our adventurous way to the banks 



