JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 103 
grand, wild—daye, and terrific. And 
yet how beautiful it is now, when one 
sees the wild bee, moving from one flower 
to another in search of food, which doubt- 
less is as sweet to it, as the essence of 
the magnolia is to those of favoured Lou- 
isiana. The little Ring Plover rearing 
_ its delicate and tender young, the Eider 
Duck swimming man-of-war-like amid 
her floating brood, like the guardship of 
a most valuable convoy; the White- 
crowned Bunting’s sonorous note reach- 
ing the ear ever and anon; the crowds 
of sea birds in search of places wherein 
to repose or to feed — how beautiful is 
all this in this wonderful rocky desert at 
this season, the beginning of July, com- 
pared with the horrid blasts of winter 
which here predominate by the will of 
God, when every rock is rendered smooth 
with snows so deep that every step the 
traveller takes is as if entering into his 
grave; for even should he escape an 
avalanche, his eye dreads to search the 
