WINTR Y DA YS 269 



has its charms ; and so have the waveless, airy 

 lakes of snowy white, whose shores, viewed from 

 an upland, extend high along the pastures, while 

 from the depths ascend the sounds of waking day, 

 barking of dogs, lowing of kine, and monotone of 

 the sheep-bell. 



Towards evening in winter, when the air is still, 

 mist is seen not only rising from the water, but 

 also from moist land. On the field its develop- 

 ment is hardly discernible, but streams and ponds 

 sometimes " steam " almost as though they boiled. 

 At that time, little columns of mist, a few feet in 

 height, arise like some sort of spectres from the 

 water. They are numberless. Often still, they 

 sometimes whirl in the eddies of slow air-currents, 

 and pass in a sad procession along their silent 

 highway, or drift across the shore. The evapora- 

 tion from waterfalls is more rapid, and sometimes 

 forms columns of white mist, which are lifted by 

 the upward current of air warmed by the water. 

 Where ponds are surrounded by higher ground or 

 by hills, the mist often accumulates and forms a 

 lake above a. lake. Should a wind arise, the mists 

 generally vanish ; and this especially occurs when 



