118 THE MOUNTAINS 



I have lately observed that some of our 

 evergreens more strikingly exhibit their 

 structure in winter, especially when there 

 is snow on the ground; but I am not yet 

 prepared to enforce and utilize the point. 

 The second reason is that in winter the 

 branches and twigs, now bare and clean- 

 cut, stand out sharply against the sky in 

 all their thrust, and crisscross, and minute 

 tracery. As a man said of the spire of 

 Antwerp cathedral, "It looks like Mechlin 

 lace flung into the air." Few things in 

 the wide world, indeed, are more deli- 

 cately beautiful than a long sky-line of 

 lacelike treetops; the entire line in high 

 relief against the sky; and the sky itself 

 having that soft, pervasive, ineffable win- 

 ter color which I will try to suggest by 

 calling it a bluish, winter-gray pearl. 

 Then, to complete the scene, there should 

 be (and is likely to be) a small cloud or 

 two sailing high enough to give perfect 

 accent to the immeasurable heavenly alti- 

 tude. It is a time to drop all your prob- 



