SPRING 91 



rable," he pronounces it, like a " fine cork- 

 screw stream issuing with incessant tinkle 

 from a cork." " Tinkle " is exactly the word. 

 Trust Thoreau to find that^ though he could 

 not find the singer. If the thrushes are left 

 out of the account, there is no voice in the 

 mountains that I am gladder to hear. 



Near the outlet of the lake, in a shaded 

 hollow, lies a deep snowbank, and not far 

 away the ground is matted with trailing ar- 

 butus, still in plentiful bloom. One of the 

 most attractive things here is the few-flow- 

 ered shadbush (^Amelanchier oligocaTpci), 

 The common A, Canadensis grows near by ; 

 and it is astonishing how unlike the two spe- 

 cies look, although the difference (the visi- 

 ble difference, I mean) is mostly in the ar- 

 rangement of the flowers, — clustered in one 

 case, separately disposed in the other. To- 

 day the " average observer " would look 

 twice before suspecting any close relation- 

 ship between them ; a week or two hence he 

 would look a dozen times before remarking 

 any distinction. With them, as with the 

 red cherry, it is the blossom that makes the 

 bush. 



