34 MAECH. 



dom motionless. They are borne along rapidly by the 

 brisk winds, now enveloping the landscape in gloom, 

 then suddenly illuminating it with sunshine, and pro- 

 ducing that constant play of light and shade which is 

 peculiar to the early spring. 



During the occasional days of pleasant serenity that 

 occur in March, we begin to look about us among the 

 sheltered retreats in the woods and mountains, to watch 

 the earliest budding of vegetation. Seldom, however, do 

 we find a flower outside of the gardens ; but many a 

 green herb, that has been preserved under the snow or 

 under the protection of shrubbery, may be seen creeping 

 upon the surface, and spreading its delicate verdure upon 

 the brown turfs. There the leaves of the strawberry 

 and the cinqfoil are as green as in summer, and the 

 tall hypericum, which is as it were a tree in summer, 

 becomes in winter and spring a creeping vine, with foli- 

 age as fine as that of a heath. At such times, while saun- 

 tering about the fields, rejoicing in what seems to be a 

 true revival of spring, the fierce north-wind begins his 

 raging anew, and ere another morning the birds lie con- 

 cealed in the depths of the forest, and all hearts are 

 saddened by the universal aspect of winter. 



The change that has taken place in the appearance 

 of the sun at his rising, since the opening of this month, 

 may be regarded as one of the usual indications of the 

 reviving spring. The atmosphere, on clear mornings, is 

 more heavily laden with vapors than is usual at the 

 same hour in winter. The exhalations of the preceding 

 day have been descending in frosty dews by night upon 

 the plains, and while gathered thickly about the hori- 

 zon yield to the first rays of the sun a tint of purple 

 and violet, like the dawn of a summer morning. The 

 sun in midwinter, when there are no vapors on the lakes 

 and meadows, after the cold winds have frozen every 



