MAECH. 35 



source of exhalant moisture, rises into a clear, transparent 

 atmosphere. As spring advances, and the sun rises higher, 

 the evaporation increases, the atmosphere in the morning 

 becomes charged with prismatic vapors, and every mead 

 and valley is crowned at sunrise with wreaths of mist 

 adorned with the hues of the rainbow. The crimson haze 

 that accompanies the dawn denotes that the icy fountains 

 are unlocked, and that the lakes and rivulets are again 

 pouring their dewy offerings to the skies. 



March is an unpleasant month for rambling. There 

 is but little to tempt the lover of Nature, in either field 

 or wood, to examine her treasures, or to enjoy the lux- 

 ury of climate ; but there is still a motive for roaming 

 abroad, though it were but to watch the breaking up 

 of the ice, and to mark the progress of the thousands 

 of new-born rivulets that leap down the snowy moun- 

 tains toward the grand reservoir of waters. There* are 

 places always to be found which are inviting to the 

 solitary pedestrian during the most uncomfortable sea- 

 sons. The fairy hands that were once busy in spreading 

 tints upon the flowers and upon the heavens still toil 

 unseen in their deserted places, weaving the few frag- 

 ments of remaining beauty upon moss-grown hillocks and 

 in fern-embroidered nooks. 



People who have always lived in the interior of the 

 country can have only a feeble conception of the pleasure 

 of a seaside ramble, which is during this month, when 

 the west-winds prevail the greater part of the time, more 

 agreeable than a walk in the open plain. Among the 

 lakes and rivers and hills and valleys of an interior land- 

 scape, though there be an endless variety of pastoral 

 beauty, there is nothing that will compare with the grand- 

 eur of a water prospect from the sea-shore. Neither can 

 such a view be fully appreciated by those who have be- 

 held it only from the harbor of a large city, where the 



