THE MAKING OF RIME 39 



compounded, differ from raindrops, very much as clay 

 differs from sand. Clay itself often the cause of mist 

 is made of the finest particles and sand of the biggest. 

 Some three thousand and more of these pearls might be 

 set side by side on a linear inch ; and their fineness gives 

 the building frost its chance of the nice work that silvers 

 every blade and twig and projection of bark ; indeed, 

 every protruding sod and stone. When the mist falls 

 upon them the flocking birds come closer together ; and 

 partridges may so hug one another s presence that a 

 dishcloth would conceal a covey. And how slowly they 

 will fly. You would not think so heavy a bird could 

 keep in the air at such a pedestrian pace. It is a greater 

 marvel how the duck, one of the heaviest birds that 

 flies in relation to its bulk, manages to come down on 

 to the ice without damage. Like an airplane, they must 

 keep up their pace till they almost touch the solid surface, 

 but, unlike most mammals, including our dogs, they 

 appear to understand this strangely hardened surface, 

 and though the manoeuvre is a little awkward, obviously 

 difficult, and laughable to the observer, they succeed in 

 sliding along without damage to their feet. They walk 

 over it with ease- A hen, on the other hand, if it happens 

 to stray on to smooth ice, is utterly helpless and entirely 

 frightened. Moor-hen on some streams are hardly less 

 helpless. The level has fallen rapidly and left the thinnest 

 &quot; cat ice &quot; at the edges, to the despair even of the voles. 

 The surface is patterned and broken by their vagrant 

 journeys. 



5- 



Walking one day in such weather, along a quiet 

 hedgerow, I heard a wintry chuckle overhead, and, 

 looking up saw, on an elm bough close overhead, a 



