ADVENTURES. 151 



they rival England's eldest oaks not in height, I 

 allow, but in circumference of stem ; perhaps in age 

 also. See these knotted congers and hideous constric- 

 tors the writhing and athletic mass of disinterred 

 roots. Are they not worth our contemplating ? Here, 

 Bill, let us drop. 



May. What ! among these ferns, and in the proximity 

 of this ant-hill ? I love not the offensive crawlers, 

 nor consider my flesh safe in their neighbourhood. 

 They are a bandit brood, and infest the bracken-forest 

 far and wide. Eather let us ascend to yonder jut of 

 gray rock, from which the bearded goat hath just now 

 sprung ; 'tis more to my mind as a resting-place, and is 

 sheltered also by another of these alders, fully as large 

 and fantastic as the one which you first admired. 



Swivel. We are both of us bad selectors of a lux- 

 urious seat. If you dread ants, I am no friend to a 

 rough, hard, and uneasy stone-crag, when it may be 

 avoided by our progressing to yonder patch of smooth, 

 dry verdure, the very spot which a wood-nymph would 

 select for her summer couch. It is both sunned and 

 shaded, and see, from its ferny marge, upstart two 

 gentle roes, wild, beautiful creatures children of a 

 dream. They are not altogether afraid, but pause and 

 turn to gaze with large, mild eye, on our intrud- 

 ing presence. Who that saw them now could be 

 their butcher ? 



May. I would not trust even thyself, Doctor, wert 

 thou aptly armed. 'Tis bad sensibility, and mawkish 



