14 . TIMES AND SEASONS. 



There is little wood, except of the pine and fir tribe, 

 sombre and still ; a few birches grow on the hill-sides, 

 and a wild cherry or two ; but willows hang over the water, 

 and many shrubs combine to constitute a tangled thicket 

 redolent with perfume. Towards the margin of the lake, 

 the ground is covered with spongy swamp-moss, and several 

 species of ledum and kalmia, with the fragrant gale, give 

 out aromatic odours. The low, unvarying, and somewhat 

 mournful bleat of the snipes on the opposite hill, and the 

 short, impatient flapping of wings as one occasionally flies 

 across the water, seem rather to increase than to dimi- 

 nish the general tone of repose, which is aided, too, by 

 yonder bittern that stands in the dark shadow of an over- 

 hanging bush as motionless as if he were carved in stone, 

 reflected perfectly in the shallow water in which he is 

 standing. 



But presently the spell is broken ; the almost oppres- 

 sive silence and stillness are interrupted ; the eastern 

 clouds have been waxing more and more ruddy, and the 

 sky has been bathed in golden light ever becoming more 

 lustrous. Now the sea reflects in dazzling splendour the 

 risen sun ; nature awakes ; lines of ruffling ripple run 

 across the lake from the airs which are beginning to 

 breathe down the glen ; the solemn stillness which weighed 

 upon the woods is dissipated ; the lowing of cattle comes 

 faintly from the distant settlements ; crows fly cawing 

 overhead ; and scores of tiny throats combine, each in its 

 measure, to make a sweet harmony, each warbling its 

 song of unconscious praise to its beneficent Creator. 



