50 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



The odor of the fox is readily detected by a keen nostril, es- 

 pecially at night. The noisomeness of the warren is distinctly 

 perceptible where unperceived by day, and the taint is carried 

 abroad in the ambling fur, the contaminated wake held in equi- 

 librium, as it were, in the heavy mist. Even the tiny emerald 

 lace -wing fly or the caddis -moth will sometimes thus leave 

 its malodorous trail threading the maze of redolence in the 

 mist; and the bronzy scented beetle will challenge your nostril 

 as you loiter in the dark woods, perhaps within the course of 

 its recent droning flight or in the neighborhood of its haunt 

 upon oozy tree -trunk near by. Often have I trailed him like 

 a hound, and captured him in his concealment in the fissured 

 bark. 



The bibulous convivialist welcomes a certain ambrosial nectar 

 which mortals call a pousse cafe, but which is said to be of the 

 gods, wherein the several tempting ingredients are so deftly de- 

 canted as to lie unblended in their fragrant equipoise for a full 

 minute ; how much longer, it has possibly never been permitted 

 to reveal. Something of the same phenomenon is naturally dem- 

 onstrated in the scented distillations of the dew. In the shel- 

 tered lowlands, when the night is still, the motley ingredients of 

 this odorous tangle seem to find their equilibrium, and lie in 

 strata, as it were. How the redolence of the witch-hazel revels 

 in the mist, weaving itself into the pale fabric as it floats above 

 the marsh ! It is the most volatile incense which we shall meet 

 in the moonlight glens, and seems to float like oil upon the 

 denser air, laden with the heavy emanations of the swamp. You 

 may walk with your nostrils tingling in its tide, and leave it high 

 and dry as you sit to rest. I have noted the same fact with 

 regard to the evening primrose, but fancy the perfume is less 

 volatile than the Hamamaelis, and occupies a lower plane. Here 

 are veritable zones of varying humidity and temperature, each 

 with its haunting fragrance, often capricious, and yet again quite 

 constant in its recurrence. In a certain well-known glen, for 

 instance, you will always pass through a fugitive stratum of mead- 

 ow-rue or linden, or other faithful perfume for each season; in. 



