CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 229 



ning devices, and elegant views of architecture to 

 those who have eyes to see them. 



Look at this southern hillside, studded with slim, 

 middle-aged hickories, maples and4)aks, basking in 

 the lustre of the winter's sunshine ! A declivity of 

 purple spray above, rising up against the dark blue 

 sky, while the whitened slope beneath is scrawled 

 with the shadows of trunks and boughs. Stop for 

 a moment in a sheltered place, where the light 

 breeze has not disturbed the snow, to contemplate 

 this low patch of straggling green-brier. Every 

 thorn, tendril and stem has caught the flakes as 

 they fell, until the tangled mass appears now like a 

 huge piece of whitest coral. Here is a half-buried 

 clump of sumacs, as if a herd of reindeer had shed 

 their horns. Along the side of the hill by the 

 edge of the woods, where there are various eddy- 

 ing winds, the snow-lines are crinkled in as many 

 curious and fantastic shapes as there are freaks in 

 the weather-vane. 



The gently moving air stings quite keenly the 

 ears and face as you walk against it. I have 

 taken refuge for awhile on the leeward side of a 

 huge bowlder of conglomerate or pudding-stone, 

 which at a distance, through the trees, resembles a 

 large hay-stack, so regular is it in outline. What 



