WOODLAND STREAMS. 271 



woodland stream dashes along through scenes of 

 ever-varying loveliness and beauty, with a voice 

 of impetuous freedom and gladness : now, with a 

 pleasant murmur, it rattles over a bed of pebbles ; 

 now, lost to the eye, it glides stealthily through a 

 shady hollow; now it sweeps past the base of 

 huge masses of syenite cliff; dashes over boulders 

 of rock, or creeps silently among moss-covered 

 stones; now, divided by dark, boldly jutting 

 rocks, it is scattered into a score of bubbling 

 rills i now, again united in one broad expanse, a 

 rolling mass of foam, it goes tumbling headlong 

 over a rocky precipice into a boiling abyss below, 

 mingling all its waters in a foaming pool. Joined 

 in its course by a thousand springs and tribu- 

 tary streams, at last it becomes a broad and 

 rapid river, gliding smoothly along, hushed 

 in peace, reflecting the passing cloud, and 

 scarcely ruffled by the freshening breeze ; then 

 man builds his habitation by its banks, and 

 forest creatures drink of its waters in fear and 

 trembling. 



