68 
THE FERN PARADISE . 
rugged moorlands. It is really almost impossible 
to express in words the keen sense of enjoy- 
ment which is experienced during so delightful 
a ramble as this river-side path affords. 
You thread a narrow path along -a grassy 
sward. Beneath, the soft, verdant carpeting is 
thickly strewn with wild flowers ; above you a 
delightful canopy formed of the interlaced branches 
of trees, through which the screened sunlight 
softly falls. On your right a high embankment, 
leading up to a higher path on the hill-side, from 
out of which hang tufts of fern-fronds, mingled 
in charming variety. Down to your left rolls 
the river, whose music joins in chorus with the 
songs of the birds, singing, you know not where, 
but everywhere around you. As you follow this 
charming river-side path, you have from time to 
time to press through the dense masses of 
shrubs which surround you, — now hanging down 
overhead, now springing out from the left, and 
now from the right side. The small, but startling, 
incidents of the route add a sort of piquancy to 
the enjoyment. The sudden flutter and the wild 
