310 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



which may cover us with its gloom on the morrow ; for 

 we live on the shores of the " mournful and misty Atlan- 

 tic," and many a spring day must yet be darkened by fog 

 and chilled by gales from the floating ice-fields drifting 

 down the coast, before the tardy green leaves of the hard- 

 woods fully appear. 



About the 20th of May the presence of spring is per- 

 ceptible in the sprouting of little leaves on almost all the 

 smaller deciduous shrubs, simultaneously with the light 

 green sprays of the larch. From this time vegetation 

 progresses with extraordinary rapidity ; a delightful 

 change in the atmosphere almost invariably occurs ; the 

 cold easterly winds cease ; balmy airs from the westward 

 succeed, and assist in developing the tender buds and 

 blossoms, and in a few days the face of the country, 

 lately so bare and dreary, glows with warmth and beauty. 

 All nature rejoices in this pleasant season ; the songs of 

 the hermit-thrush (T. solitarius), robin, and of a host of 

 warblers, the cheerful piping of the frogs throughout the 

 warm night, and the soft west wind, which borrows an 

 indescribable fragrance from the blossoms of innumerable 

 shrubs and plants now flowering in the woods and on the 

 barrens, afibrd charms which more than repay for the 

 gloom of the long and trying winter. 



The red blossoming maple (Acer rubrum) now exhibits 

 crimson flower-clusters topping each spray, almost vieing 

 in colour with the glories of its autumnal foliage : the 

 Indian pear (Amelanchier) and wild cherry (C. Pennsyl- 

 vanica), growing in great abundance throughout the 

 country, seem overburdened with their masses of delicate 

 white blossoms, and impart a fragrance to the air, in 

 which are mingled a thousand other scents ; for in this 



