RUNNING WATERS 
171 
giving up something to form a compound that 
is the coloring neither of the sky nor of the 
brook, but a beautiful blend of both. 
In the winter the brook is ice-bound, and its 
only sound is the gurgle that tells where the 
water is still running away to the sea. The 
first fall of snow in the glen, when the hemlock 
branches hang heavy, and the fern and bowlders 
lie white and still beside the dark running 
brook, certainly produces the picturesque; but 
after the water freezes and the snows deepen, 
the charm of the brook has flown. It is seen 
at its best in the hot months of summer, when 
the moss is thick on the rocks and the shadows 
are dark on the pool. 
Purity is always the essence of the small 
stream, but purity is an impossibility where the 
drained surface is not rocky or sandy. The 
rapid run of water over clay or black loam can 
produce only muddiness. Such is the result in 
the brooks that come down from the alkaline 
plains of the West, and in many of the streams 
emptying into the Mississippi and the Ohio. 
The brooks of Scotland draining the peat-beds 
and heather are naturally dark, but running in 
rocky channels they have a tendency to clear 
themselves. The Swiss and German brooks are 
The frauen 
brook, 
