216 BIRDS AND MAN 



Listening, thinking of nothing, simply living 

 in the sound of the wind, that strange feeling 

 which is unrelated to anything that concerns us, 

 of the life and intelligence inherent in nature, 

 grows upon the mind. I have sometimes thought 

 that never does the world- seem more aUve and 

 watchful of us than on a still, moonlight night in 

 a solitary wood, when the dusky green foUage is 

 silvered by the beams, and all visible objects 

 and the white hghts and black shadows in 

 the intervening spaces seem instinct with spirit. 

 But it is not so. If the conditions be favour- 

 able, if we go to our solitude as the crystal- 

 gazer to his crystal, with a mind prepared, 

 this faculty is capable of awaking and taking 

 complete possession of us by day as well as by 

 night. 



As the trees are mostly beeches — miles upon 

 miles of great trees, many of them hoUow-trunked 

 from age and decay — the fallen leaves are an im- 

 portant element in the forest scenery. They lie 

 half a yard to a yard deep in all the deep hollows 

 and deUs and old water-worn channels, and where 

 the ground is sheltered they cover acres of ground 

 — milUons and myriads of dead, fallen beech leaves. 



