216 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



the water in so long a journey have mixed with that 

 from other mountain spring -heads? If the source of 

 the sulphur is in the meadow, however deep down, 

 ought it not to have been exhausted long before 

 now? Can we conceive of a source of this mineral, or 

 any combination, generating sulphuretted hydrogen in 

 quantities large enough to last for centuries, yet not 

 impregnate every spring within a mile or two, since 

 they all bubble through a loose mass of sand and coarse 

 gravel ? 



Perhaps this spring has some virtue yet unrecognized. 

 It is to be hoped so ; but it need not be the fabled 

 water that perpetuates youth. The songs of birds, the 

 beauty of flowers, the companionship of animate nat- 

 ure, prevent the naturalist from growing old, except in 

 years. 



July 16. — Even so early as this there is seen a hint 

 of the coming autumn. The young red-wings are 

 strong of wing and are already flocking. Red-winged 

 blackbirds come in flocks — a few remain all winter — 

 and depart in clouds rather than flocks, if I may use 

 the terra. To see a hundred or more now, in the mid- 

 dle of the month, suggests that the wealth of bird-life 

 is diminishing. This is true. A scarcity of food, it 

 may be; or impatience to return to their winter homes. 

 "Whatever the cause, there is now a comparative scarcity 

 of birds, and this will become more marked as the sea- 

 son advances. Thank fortune! other forms of life can- 

 not get away so easily, and half the afternoon I have 

 been playing with snakes. There were a pair of them, 



