216 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



In countries where ptarmigans abound, my seeds mostly 

 furnish their winter fare. Who has not read concerning 

 that wonderful bird, clothed in summer with pale brown 

 or ash feathers, in winter becoming of the purest white, 

 and scarcely to be distinguished among her snowy haunts ; 

 which braves the severest cold, and is found in the northern 

 parts of Europe, even as far as Greenland ; which avoids 

 the heat of summer, and prefers the sharp frosts and wind 

 on mountain tops, ascending their sides when the snow 

 begins to melt, till, having gained the highest elevation, he 

 burrows in the snow ? 



On the borders of those vast lakes and swift rivers that 

 flow over stony beds in the north of Europe, grow those 

 gigantic trees among my kindred, the bark of which suffices 

 to form a large canoe. And so indestructible is its quality, 

 that traders who visit Lapland in search of bark often find 

 large trees lying prostrate, from which the wood has 

 gradually mouldered away, while the bark remains like a 

 hollow cone without the slightest change. 



