SPRING 91 



rable," he pronounces it, like a " fine cork- 

 screw stream issuing with incessant tinkle 

 from a cork." " Tinkle " is exactly the word. 

 Trust Thoreau to find that, though he could 

 not find the singer. If the thrushes are left 

 out of the account, there is no voice in the 

 mountains that I am gladder to hear. 



Near the outlet of the lake, in a shaded 

 hollow, lies a deep snowbank, and not far 

 away the ground is matted with trailing ar- 

 butus, still in plentiful bloom. One of the 

 most attractive things here is the few-flow- 

 ered shadbush (^Amelanchier oligocarj^a). 

 The common A. Canadensis grows near by ; 

 and it is astonishing how unlike the two spe- 

 cies look, although the difference (the visi- 

 ble difference, I mean) is mostly in the ar- 

 rangement of the flowers, — clustered in one 

 case, separately disposed in the other. To- 

 day the " average observer " would look 

 twice before suspecting any close relation- 

 ship between them ; a week or two hence he 

 would look a dozen times before remarking 

 any distinction. With them, as with the 

 red cherry, it is the blossom that makes the 

 bush. 



