ig8 THE FALL OF THE LEAF. 



remarked, that it is specially so wherever the frosts of 

 winter are severe ; thus in Norway, Sweden, and Rus- 

 sia similar effects are produced upon the advent of 

 the first frosts, and generally so all over the colder 

 portions of the temperate "zones. The colours are of 

 all shades of reds, yellows, and browns, from dark 

 crimson, bright golds, and russet browns to an infinite 

 variety of more delicate shadings, of whose richness 

 and beauty we can form no idea in the British Islands, 

 though our autumn tints are often very fine also. But 

 the Canadian and other North American fall tints are 

 infinitely more brilliant, and justify the observations 

 of a well-known American sporting writer, who remarks 

 of them: 



" It is true, we know ourselves to be looking on, as it were, 

 a hectic loveliness, which like the glow on the cheek of con- 

 sumptive beauty, is the precursor of decay and death. Still 

 so exquisite is that beauty, so delicious the temperature, the 

 atmosphere, and the aspect of the skies; so gorgeous the 

 hues of the forest, mantled mountain, and woodland, that to 

 me the promise of spring, and the fulness of summer, are 

 both inferior to the serene and calm decline of the woodland 

 year, which seems to me to resemble rather the tranquil and 

 gentle close of a well-spent life, enriched by the hopes of 

 glories to shine forth after the winter of the grave, than the 

 termination of an existence to be dreaded or deplored." * 



The American writer whose words we have just 

 quoted here likens the fall of the leaf to the close of 

 existence, but for ourselves we prefer rather to regard 

 it as the advent of that natural slumber which is as 

 needful for the tree and for the plant, as for animals 



* Frank Forester's American Field Sports, by Henry Wm. Herbert, 

 1852, Vol. i., p. 264. 



