514 



THE NATURE BOOK 



moved to a sense of pleasure at the 

 sight. To see the empty colourless air 

 possessed by myriads of dancing fairy 

 flakes, the well-known vistas of street or 

 field cut off by a shifting li\-ing ciu-tain ; 

 and the woods taking on a new, strange 

 wildness; their shaded hoUows becoming 



r 



I 



w 





-.L 



"NEW FALLEN SNOW.' 



caves of mystery, the hi(ling-])Iaces of 

 dreams. 



Who can tell of the beauty of the new 

 fallen snow ? The thousand colours of 

 the world overcome with a whiteness 

 the nearest to the absolute which we 

 can know ; the feathery stuff — lightness 

 and purity made palpable — laifl so daintily 

 by tlic" wind in the liollow lanes and under 

 hedges, in a thousand sha])es of ideal 

 beauty and fantasy ; and the rosy flush 

 in which the sunset bathes the hilltops. 



Yet the snow is not all beauty. The 

 religions of old time armed Jupiter the 

 All-powerful with the lightning — a weapon 

 impalpable, invisible, yet deadly in its 

 stroke beyond anything else in heaven or 

 earth. And when the North-East Wind 

 takes into his hand the snowstorm, what 

 can stand against his power ? With this 



he levels the great trees, paralyses the 

 most powerful of human activities, and 

 takes his toll of human lives. Even the 

 mountains in their pride are at last 

 brought to nothing by those resistless 

 forces of the snow — ^the avalanche, the 

 glacier and the torrent. 



The softer airs of our 

 country bring the season 

 about us in a gentler 

 manner, and the plea- 

 sures of fancy are not 

 often broken by wintry 

 violence and disaster, 

 though ardent spirits 

 may have to complain of 

 the opposite faults of 

 dulness and torpor to 

 which it is prone. 



\\'inter has been of 

 late years a long-drawn 

 season ; " lingering hke 

 an unloved guest." On 

 Easter Day of 1908 

 W inter was still in 

 possession, though his 

 power was waning ; the 

 north wind whistled, and 

 snow-clouds were flying 

 overhead, but between 

 the scuds the sun shone 

 out, and flowers were 

 blooming in sheltered 

 places. 



On one side of the lane 

 stretched the beech wood, and the storm 

 swept down the bare avenues and coated 

 the nortli side <jf every tree with wet, 

 clinging snow ; but on the other side, 

 facing the south, the sun shone warm on 

 the short turf of the hill slope, changing 

 the melting hailstones and snowflakes to 

 gems of brightest cfjlour — pure white of 

 the diauKnid, burning orange and ruby, 

 amethyst, blue, and sapphire. 



At the end of the lane a country girl 

 was standing : on her shoulders the snow 

 lay thick, it filled the folds of her dress, 

 and mingled with her bonny brown 

 hair ; but her face, as she stood and 

 listened to the lark, was bathed in sim- 

 shine, and her hands were full of wood 

 anemones and primroses. 



" If winter comes, can spring be far behind ? '' 



Arthur Scammell. 





