22 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



The roar of a waterfall, when constantly near us, is 

 disagreeable ; but the purling of a rill, if not music, is 

 something very nearly allied to it. The most agreeable 

 expression of the noise of waters is their animation. 

 They give life to the scenes around us, like the voices 

 of birds and insects. In winter, especially, they make 

 an agreeable interruption of the stillness ; and remind 

 us, that during the slumber of all visible things, some 

 hidden powers are still guiding the operations of nature. 

 The rapids produced by a small stream flowing over a 

 gentle declivity of rocks yield, perhaps, the most expres- 

 sive sound of waters, unless we except the distant roar 

 of waves, as they are dashed upon the shore of the sea. 

 The last, being intermittent, is preferable to the roar of 

 a waterfall, which is tiresomely incessant. Nearly all 

 the sounds made by water are agreeable, and cannot be 

 multiplied without increasing the delightful influences 

 of the place and the season. 



Besides the pleasant sounds that come from water, in ' 

 all its variety of shapes and movements, we must not 

 omit to mention those which are produced by winds, as 

 they pass through the branches and foliage of trees and 

 shrubbery. The colors of their leaves, and the glitter- 

 ing light from their more or less refractive surfaces, do 

 not differ more than the modifications of sound pro- 

 duced from them by the passing breezes. Every tree 

 may be said, when agitated by the winds, to have a 

 voice peculiar to itself, and capable of exciting the most 

 agreeable sensations. The lofty branches of pines, 

 when swayed by the wind, emit a sound like the 

 murmuring of distant waters, and inspire a soothing 

 melancholy like that inspired by the continual twilight 

 that reigns within their solitudes. The leaves of the 

 poplar, proverbial for their tremulous motion, produce a 



