294 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



calm soever it may be, now and then a breeze will pass fit- 

 fully overhead, and the trees will shake their fluttering leaves 

 in the wind. Perfect stillness will immediately follow, save 

 at intervals a whisper is heard from some unseen object, as if 

 something that has life is watching your motions, or you had 

 obtained a faint perception of sounds from the invisible 

 world. 



Among the affecting circumstances attending a night in the 

 woods I must not omit to mention the sounds of distant bells 

 that proclaim the flight of time. These, while they add to 

 the solemnity of our feelings, aff'ord a pleasant assurance of 

 the nearness of human habitations. But the single stroke 

 that tells the hour of midnight, as it tolls over the echoing 

 landscape, repeated at short intervals, from different villages, 

 is peculiarly solemn and impressive. You then feel that you 

 are under the very meridian of night, and that darkness is 

 your only protection. The effect of this single toll upon the 

 mind at such a time cannot be described. 



I have as yet spoken only of sounds which at midnight 

 are scarcely more impressive than, sights. The swarms of lit- 

 tle fireflies that are wheeling and darting about in the low- 

 lands are pleasant objects, and are almost the only creatures 

 that can be seen, except perhaps some night bird, as it passes 

 like a dark spot over the half luminous sky. But these little- 

 sparks of insect life do not aggravate the impressions made 

 by the darkness. There is nothing about them that excites 

 the imagination, or exalts the feelings. One can easily im- 

 agine the terror with which the glaring eyes of the jaguar 

 must be beheld by the midnight traveller in the South Amer- 

 ican forest. The eyes of the owl, as seen through the deep 

 foliage, might produce similar though inferior impressions ; but 

 in our quiet woods imagination is the source of all the terrors 

 that might be felt on witnessing any sudden visions of this bird. 



The night would afford no mean employment to the natur- 

 alist, if he could but observe the midnight operations of the 

 still wakeful part of animated nature. There are many noc- 

 turnal insects which, though not easily discovered in the dark- 

 ness, are then in motion, hovering among the foliage, or seek- 



