186 THE BRITISH SPRING. [NOV 



days, without the fear of those chilling chances 

 which our uncertain climate dooms it to expe- 

 rience. 



Without being a great traveller, I have seen 

 the effect of an Alpine spring. In May, all is 

 one mass of white snow, silence, and desolation. 

 The power of the sun, with the coming year, at 

 once turns the white to green, and in a few 

 days, whole rocks, whole districts, I may say, 

 are covered with white and yellow saxifrages, 

 different sorts of violets, primulas, and blue 

 gentians; and the little trailing strawberry 

 clings to the sides of endless ranges of towering 

 rocks : this change, effected in so short a time, 

 appears more like enchantment than the slow r 

 and uncertain return of spring to which we are 

 accustomed. 



I do not write all this to put you out of hu- 

 mour with our spring : it has, like that of the 



