60 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



Hence if we have cold in March, it is a cold that will 

 soon be succeeded by heat ; if we have clouds, the 

 darkness they bring will soon be succeeded by sunshine. 

 We see none of those melancholy clouds, so common 

 in the latter part of autumn, that remain for weelcs 

 brooding over the landscape, as if the heavens were 

 hung in mourning for the departure of summer: none 

 of that ominous darkness in the glens and the valleys, 

 denoting that the sun has at length quietly surrendered 

 to the frosty conqueror of the earth. Though March is 

 colder, it has more light than November. The sun is 

 daily increasing in power, and the snow that still re- 

 mains on the earth renders the effect of his rays more 

 brilliant and animating. The clouds at this season are 

 seldom motionless ; they are borne along rapidly by the 

 brisk winds, now enveloping the landscape in gloom, 

 then suddenly illuminating it with sunshine, and caus- 

 ing that constant play of light and shade which is pe- 

 culiar to the early spring. 



In March, we are not without occasional days of 

 agreeable serenity; and at such times we begin to look 

 about us, among the sheltered retreats in the woods 

 and mountains, to watch the earliest budding of vege- 

 tation. Sometimes in the latter part of the month, un- 

 der the slope of a hill that faces the meridian sun, and 

 is sheltered by surrounding woods, we may discover the 

 delicate blossoms of the ground laurel (epigea repens), 

 and within the edge of the woods a few flowers of the 

 early anemone (hepatica triloba). But these flowers, 

 so early in the season, denote an unusual state of for- 

 wardness, and seldom make their appearance until after 

 the middle of April. At such times, while sauntering 

 about the fields, rejoicing in what seems to be the 

 actual return of spring, the fierce north wind commences 



