294 SUDDEN CHANGE FROM WINTER TO SUMMER. 



sublimity. The white snow seems to be an invulnerable 

 shield against which the sun-darts glance harmless, and are 

 reflected back into the air. On the contrary the south wind 

 seems all powerful. In the midst of mist and cold, the snow 

 melts before it like butter upon hot toast ; and winter tumbles 

 down like a pack of cards." * 



And yet, he says, this wonderful transformation, 

 u the silent upheaval of the gigantic river four miles 

 wide, and the smash up of the six feet of ice upon 

 it, " is to his mind surpassed in interest, and as a 

 marvellous phenomenon of Nature, by the arrival of 

 the migratory birds. Until then, these snow-clad 

 wilds are deserted by almost every trace of life, and 

 silent as the grave; but all at once, like a shift of 

 scenery upon the stage of a theatre, the wilderness is 

 now made bright with the bursting forth of verdure 

 and the general resurrection of vegetable life; whilst 

 on every side the voice of the bird is heard filling 

 each copse and thicket with melody; and covering 

 every newly formed pool of water, with multitudes of 

 these graceful creatures. The breaking up of the ice 

 is indeed a majestic display of power, " but for all 

 that (says Mr. Seebohm) the arrival of the migratory 

 birds so suddenly, and in such countless numbers, 

 appeals more forcibly to the imagination, perhaps be- 

 cause it is more mysterious." f 



The first rush of these migrants takes place the very 

 moment the ice and snow begins to melt, and " every 

 little oasis of land in the vast desert of snow is soon 

 full of birds " first a few pairs, rapidly succeeded by 



* Siberia in Asia : a Visit to the Valley of the Yenesay in East 

 Siberia, with a description of the Natural History, migration of birds, etc., 

 by Henry Seebohm, 1882, pp. 100, 101. 



f Ibid., p. 193. 



