172 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
-a dimly defined streak of silver. We descend to 
the vale, cross a trickling streamlet, with its com- 
plement of Alders, and thence, mounting the 
opposite upland, thickly covered by gorse, heather, 
brake, and sapling Fir—the perfumed forest air, 
largely impregnated with the strong odour of the 
bog myrtle, being meanwhile borne to us in quick 
aromatic gusts—we reach the upland crest, and 
wander, for a short distance, under the shadows 
of a coppice, in which we find Holly developed to 
dimensions which almost enable it to compete 
with Oak and Beech. Thence across a stretch of 
upland—gorse, heather, and fern—now getting a 
beautiful view of the rolling, wide-extending forest 
around us ; anon of open scrub, and sheltered ferny 
vale suggestive of grace and softness, and then 
of wooded heights. On through ever-clustering 
gorse and heather—now scorched by the burning 
heats of June, as we pursue our unsheltered path; 
now tasting in its full perfection the sweets of the 
sylvan shade. Some Holly-Trees along this route 
demand our notice. Here, as we enter a coppice, 
is one Tree, seven feet in girth at its widest 
part. In this same coppice are two great Oaks; 
