FRESH-WATER ALG. 193 
the conferve which flourish in it with a peculiar 
interest, independent of their own mysteries of 
structure and function. They mingle with the 
snow-white chalices and broad velvet leaves of the 
lilies, in the tranquil shallows of the moorland 
lake ; and, with the golden hues of the sunset, and 
the rosy blush of the heather-hills around, create 
a scene of enchantment in the clear pellucid 
depths. Their dishevelled tresses toss wildly in 
the foamy rapids of the water-fall, whose misty 
spray rises to freshen all the scenery around, and 
whose ‘sound of many waters’ fills the mind with 
a feeling of animated delight and bounding viva- 
city. They float in long, graceful wreaths and 
glossy traverses of silken change in the streamlet, 
wherever it clothes a jutting mass of rock with 
gemmed and sparkling folds of liquid drapery, and 
are burnished by the snowy water through every 
fibre into fitful brightness. They lie like motion- 
less clouds in the blue depths of the tranquil linn, 
that just ripples for pleasure, as it murmurs to itself 
a sinless secret hidden for ever in its heart. They 
fringe the pebbly sides of the river, whose deep 
bulging fulness flows on unceasingly, ever diffus- 
ing freshness through the green pastures which it 
gladdens, and beneath the drooping willows and 
alders that gratefully murmur over it. They 
luxuriate in the cold clear springs which form a 
N 
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