234 BEAUTIFUL SCENE AT THE CHUMIE. 



peated excursions into the forest at the rear of the 

 station, its luxuriant foliage affording a cool retreat 

 from the sultry beams of the noon- day sun. 



" There was a dell 



Where woven shades shut out the eye of day, 

 While towering near, the rugged mountains made 

 Dark back-ground 'gainst the sky." 



The garrulous brook, 



Untiring, to the patient pebbles told 

 Its history ; up came the singing breeze, 

 And the bright leaves of the acacia spake 

 Responsive, every one. Even busy life 

 Woke in that dell. The tireless spider threw 

 From spray to spray her silver-tissued snare. 

 The wary ant, whose carving pincers pierced 

 The treasured grain, toiled toward her citadel. 

 To the sweet hive went forth the loaded bee, 

 And from the wind-rocked nest the mother bird 

 Sang to her nurslings. ,, 



We ascended the mountain, the sides of which were 

 clothed by the forest, over rude ledges of rocks 

 and crumbling projections of earth, thickly inter- 

 spersed with shrubs and blossoming heaths. Copious 

 streams gushed from the crevices in the cliffs, dash- 

 ing with their clear feathery spray those mossy roots 

 and hanging branches that drooped over the narrow 

 channels through which they rushed down the rocky 

 slopes of their parent mountain, carrying fertility 

 into those cultivated patches which adjoined the 

 rustic cottages in the valley below. We could not 

 but admire the singular beauty of these irregular 





