232 THE MOUNTAIN. 



They sleep, while ever-busy Nature clothes each prostrate 

 form with a shroud of verdant mosses, thus it is 



" Out of sleeping, awaking, 

 Out of waking, asleep ; 

 Life death overtaking ; 

 Deep underneath deep /" 



The general aspect of these forests, with their different 

 changes in the procession of the seasons, must strike the 

 most careless observer. During the winter they are stark and 

 stern, the evergreen forests affording but a gloomy contrast, 

 their dark-green foliage scarcely suggesting the thought of 

 life, while the ceaseless moan of the cold and naked stems 

 speaks only of death to the wolfish winds. 



Occasionally, in the winter forests, a phenomenon occurs 

 of surpassing wonder. This is the sudden transition or 

 transmutation, frequently during the night, as if by some 

 magical power, of the whole forest of trees into a forest 

 of glass. The mists, rains, and air charged with moist- 

 ure, invest the tree-trunks, branches, and twigs with a 

 clothing of ice, clear as crystal, so that the woods seem 

 invested with an unrivaled splendor. This glittering and 

 phantasmal array must be seen to be appreciated or con- 

 ceived. 



The phenomenon of the hoar-frost is allied to this glass 

 metamorphosis. This is the investment of each finest fibre 

 of the woods with a snowy, crystalline, and sparkling velvet 

 of frost, the air being filled with floating and brilliant 

 spangles, detached by the slightest breath of wind. 



The vernal change is most genial and striking. After 

 the long death-sleep of the winter, as is the case in 

 northern latitudes, the leaves and flowers, with the first 

 sun-fires, flash out upon the air with an endless succession of 

 tints, forms, and outlines. The shades of green of the 

 young foliage are numerous, giving a different appear- 

 ance to each newly-arrayed tree. Each plant is peculiar 

 in the character of its new-born leaves ; sometimes, as in the 

 case of the beech, dropping from the twig a soft and deli- 



