206 WILD LIFE IN HARD WEATHER 



in transparency and beauty till they fade away. 

 Then the cold world without, of village street 

 and open field beyond, is plainly visible, all 

 mantled in the riftless snow. Meanwhile, before 

 the shafts of sunlight strike the window panes, 

 the grey, leaden sky changes and assumes the 

 colour of dull yellow. The vapours of the frost, 

 warmed by the risen but invisible sun, are 

 distilled from the meadows in a dense cloud 

 that hides the towering woodlands of Dol'llan. 



Directly the thaw begins, the coldness of the 

 morning seems to grow keener than before, since 

 cold is more penetrating in a damp atmosphere 

 than when the air is dry. During a thaw the 

 air is laden with moisture to such a degree that, 

 if we stand still in the shade for any length of 

 time, our limbs become almost paralysed. Earlier 

 in the winter, night after night, a dense hoar- 

 frost, rising chiefly from the river and the ad- 

 joining water meadows, closed like a pall over 

 the valley. High on the slopes, beyond the 

 level of about a hundred feet above the river, 

 this unusually dense hoar-frost was not felt ; 

 when morning gilded the crests of the hills, the 

 sun shone uninterruptedly on the dry and supple 

 verdure of the uplands. But, within the fringe 

 of the great mist-cloud, every blade of grass, 

 every tree, and every stone were set stiffly in a 

 jewelwork of frozen dew ; light almost failed to 



