30 
NATURE NOTES. 
frosts of winter have robbed the fields and woodlands of every 
bit of colour, we think of those we once neglected. 
And what if they never came again ? What if the tiny bead- 
like buds of green showed no more on the hawthorn ? What if 
the dark soil of yonder field remained for ever fallow ? What 
if the feathered friends never came back from their winter 
haunts, if the heavy clouds above never more parted to let 
through the rays of the life-giving sun ? How then would we 
treasure the memories of past delights ! A picture of a modest 
daisy would become a centre around which would gather visions 
of green meadows, waving corn, the smiling landscape sending 
back a hundred different hues all in perfect harmony with the 
blue sky above, and then as the fancy died away and we came 
back to the bleak world, cold and drear, we might realise what 
we had lost, and sigh for those pleasures now beyond recall. 
But these are speculations as to what shall never be. True, 
the trees show no signs of life ; true, the dead leaves lying thickly 
beneath my feet seem but the emblems of decay. But my 
fingers still hold the little snowdrop, and as I look at its simple 
beauty I see it as a flower of hope, as the harbinger of 
coming life, and I know that soon the earth will arouse her- 
self from her winter sleep, that once more the banks will be 
radiant with primroses, that the violet will send out again its 
delicious perfume ; and even as 1 muse, a little robin from a 
thorn close by trills out his song, as if to tell a listening world 
to wait and hope. 
Fred. W. Ashley. 
A TASMANIAN HEDGEHOG. 
NE afternoon, early in the present season, while strolling 
along the track to a deserted silver mine, we were 
fortunate enough to encounter one of the strange 
creatures commonly called porcupines [Echidna setosa), 
also taking an afternoon walk in the same locality. He was 
going along the edge of the road, which is a very rough one, 
just at the bottom of a bank, which he did not seem able to 
climb. We followed him for about one hundred yards, and so 
had a splendid opportunity of observing the style of walking 
and general appearance of the creature in its wild state, an 
•opportunity which would not be likely to occur twice in a life- 
time. It must not be inferred, however, that they are so scarce 
as never to be seen; on the contrary, they are tolerably numerous 
in the neighbourhood of Mount Bischoff, but they hardly ever 
leave the bush, and on hearing footsteps at once proceed to sink 
into the earth, so that there is no chance of getting more than a 
few seconds’ observation. 
