SWAMP WHITE-OAK BEND. 103 



that accomplishes the desired object. Even when the 

 shell is not only thick, but ribbed and prickly with 

 testaceous spines^ it is the same; let the creature but 

 feel the thrill of a pedagogic squeeze and it is doomed. 

 Ay ! but when did the musk-rat learn the secret and 

 secure the transference of the magic that lurks in the 

 hand of a school-master ? 



Again afloat, but not much more than floating. While 

 I had tarried to watch the musk-rat, the outgoing tide 

 had not tarried with me, and now had nearly run its 

 long appointed course. The trees cast so inviting a 

 shade that I concluded to land again, and having passed 

 the last of the group of swamp white-oaks, beached my 

 boat upon the muddy shore, where towering forest-trees 

 were thickly clustered. They grew so closely to the 

 water's edge, that only at low tide was there any space 

 between their trunks and the creek. Birch, linden, but- 

 ton-wood, maple, and willow were about equally repre- 

 sented in numbers, but varying as much in size as in the 

 patterns of their leaves. With the miscellaneous un- 

 dergrowth, the locality possessed plant life of every 

 shade of green ; and this it is that prevents the painful 

 monotony characteristic of some forest tracts. It is 

 scarcely less objectionable to be in a forest exclusively 

 of pine or oak than in a gaudy flower-garden. The 

 sameness of the one wearies as readily as the other pains 

 by its excess of color. In the association of widely dif- 

 ferent species of trees there is a grateful variety with- 

 out painful contrast. 



What few birds I saw seemed partial to certain trees. 



