JANUARY 



There is a low mist in the woods. It is a good 

 day to study lichens. The view so confined, it 

 compels your attention to near objects, and the 

 white background reveals the disks of the lichens 

 distinctly. They appear more loose, flowing, ex- 

 panded, flattened out, the colors brighter for the 

 damp. The round, greenish-yellow lichens on the 

 white pines loom through the mist (or are seen 

 dimly) like shields whose devices you would fain 

 read. The trees appear all at once covered with 

 the crop of lichens and mosses of all kinds. 



THOREAU : Winter. 



Entering the pine woods where I had previously 

 seen quail, I found the trees in trouble. The great 

 pines were loaded down with ice, and many a 

 branch had broken and fallen under its weight. 

 The surface of the snow was strewn with twigs and 

 branches of every size. A strange roar of falling ice 

 and twigs filled the woods, now and then empha- 

 sized by the crash of some greater fall. I found the 

 tracks of one quail and of a rabbit, made doubtless 

 Saturday evening while the snow was still soft ; but 

 otherwise the face of the snow told no tales. 



BOLLES : Land of the Lingering Snow. 



