62 HARMONIES. 



the tree regularly from distance to distance ; often they 

 embrace it so closely as to choke it, and cause the leaves 

 to fall off, so that it stretches out its dead gigantic arms 

 like branches of white coral, among the fresh verdure of 

 the forest, a picture of death, surprising us in the 

 midst of the most blooming life : frequently they give 

 the old trunk a new covering of leaves, so that the 

 same tree appears clothed in several different kinds of 

 foliage.* 



So, if space permitted, we might depict the brown 

 bear emerging from his winter retreat in the dark pine 

 forests of Scandinavia ; or the white bear seated on a 

 solitary iceberg in the Polar Sea ; or the whale spouting 

 in the same frost-bound waters, and pursued by the har- 

 poon of his relentless persecutors ; or the moose impri- 

 soned in the " yard " which he has himself formed by 

 treading down the successive snows in the lofty woods of 

 America ; or the chamois upon the peaks of the Alps, with 

 the eagle sweeping over him as he gazes contemptuously 

 down on the jager far below ; or the patient camel toiling 

 along the unbounded waste of tawny sand ; or the kangaroo 

 bounding over the Australian scrub ; or the seal basking 

 in his rocky cavern, while the surf is dashing high on the 

 cliffs around ; or the wild-duck reposing at the margin of 

 a smooth river, when the red light of evening is reflected 

 in the line left by the tall and almost meeting trees over- 

 head ; or a group of snow-white egrets standing motion- 

 less in the shallows of a reedy lake at dawn of day ; or 



* Travels of Prince Adalbert in Brazil, p. 15, et seq. 



