216 HEY: SOME WORD-PICTURES TAKEN FROM NATURE, 
a brilliant satiny green- -blue sea, with great purple patches on its 
surface. e horizon ends vaporously. A few white clouds of very 
irregular shapes float in a pale blue sky. Now and again I hear the 
sea-gulls cry, and a few birds appear above the cliff, with snowy 
breasts and dark wings. By me the thistles shake silvery plumes 
against the sea; dried stems of Holcus tremble in the wind; flies 
settle upon them with great brown eyes; hundreds of little gnats flit 
in the sunshine ; now and again the buzz of larger insects goes by. 
Behind me is a sheep pasture, a faded field with dark masses of gorse. 
The sheep are feeding so busily that they are silent, but the waves 
below are clamorous, a seething, and a perpetual roaring beneath 
the seething, both continuous and unvarying at this height. 
May 24TH, 1890. IN SHERIFF HuTTON Park. 
I am sitting on a swinging oak branch—one of those great old 
trees which are considered to be relics of the Forest of Galtres. It 
is a day of pale blue sky, and hot sunshine, with a strong north-east 
wind fresh and cool, rushing through the young leaves. The oaks 
are in their tenderest foliage, which, in to-day’s strong light, is more 
gold than green. The shadows of the leaves still twinkle sadividually 
on the grass. At hand are some horse-chestnuts in bloom. They 
have quite a glaucous effect against the oaks. The castle jackdaws 
are chattering. Piles and piles of may crowd the hedges; I never 
saw it so profuse, and its idle scent fills the air. The view over the 
great vale of York is full of refreshment—unbroken, save by the 
dimly-seen towers of the Minster. Once these quiet fields saw other 
scenes, for the great pasture through which I have just walked is full 
of entrenchments from end to end. ‘To-day I saw no living thing in 
it but a swarm 9f turquoise-bodied dragon-flies (Agrions) darting 
about a marshy spot where Ranunculus sceleratus was spreading its 
glossy leaves. 
Nov. 4TH, 1890. At REpcaR. 
I have walked from Redcar by sand-hills and sands, and climbed 
Pp 4 y 
Ammophila. All along the red boulder clay beneath the sand-hills 
has been washed clean by a stormy tide, and here and there great 
boulders appear, inscribed with their history, just as experiences 
leave a mark on human character. A soft west wind blows very, 
very feebly ; the sea is low, but the tides are neap. Near me the 
colour is a very pale pearly blue. Long regular waves are breaking, 
the foam very white in the low sunshine ; for though it is but two 
o'clock, the faint shadow of the cliff reaches far out on the level 
sands. Where a stream has broken through the cliff, the sunlight 
Naturalist, 
