Preface. 



H.E who keeps even so simple a matter as a 

 record of the weather will find that the years 

 are not very much alike. At this writing there 

 is that contradiction, a warm east rain prevail- 

 ing, although mid-January, and a year ago, this 

 date, it was clear and cold ; and so with prac- 

 tically every feature of Nature, comparing the 

 days of one year with another. The rambler 

 finds that history does not repeat itself, except 

 where the principal phenomena are grouped. 

 Birds nest in May and June and migrants come 

 and go at about the same time, but the success 

 of some outing that is vividly remembered is 

 not likely to be repeated when you go again on 

 the morning of your red-letter day to the same 

 upland field, deep, dark wood, or open, sunny 

 meadow. Would it be well if it were so? 

 There is more merit in uncertainty than satis- 

 faction in foreknowledge. The latter smacks 



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