OUT OF DOORS IN FEBRUARY. 211 



But this depends on its having heen only moderately 

 cold before, and also upon the stratum, whether it is 

 backward clay, or forward gravel and sand. Spring 

 dates are quite different according to the locality, and 

 when violets may be found in one district, in another 

 there is hardly a woodbine-leaf out. The border line 

 may be traced, and is occasionally so narrow, one may 

 cross over it almost at a step. It would sometimes 

 seem as if even the nut-tree bushes bore larger and 

 finer nuts on the warmer soil, and that they ripened 

 quicker. Any curious in the first of things, whether 

 it be a leaf, or flower, or a bird, should bear this in 

 mind, and not be discouraged because he hears some 

 one else has already discovered or heard something. 



A little note taken now at this bare time of the 

 kind of earth may lead to an understanding of the 

 district. It is plain where the plough has turned 

 it, where the rabbits have burrowed and thrown it 

 out, where a tree has been felled by the gales, by 

 the brook where the bank is worn away, or by the 

 sediment at the shallow places. Before the grass 

 and weeds, and corn and flowers have hidden it, 

 the character of the soil is evident at these natural 

 sections without the aid of a spade. Going slowly 

 along the footpath indeed you cannot go fast in 

 moist February it is a good time to select the 

 places and map them out where herbs and flowers 

 will most likely come first. All the autumn lies 

 prone on the ground. Dead dark leaves, some 

 washed to their woody frames, short gray stalks, 

 some few decayed hulls of hedge fruit, and among 

 these the mars or stocks of the plants that do not 



