114 
THE EERN PARADISE. 
delightful a ramble as this river-side path 
afforded. 
We thread a narrow path along a grassy sward. 
Beneath, soft, verdant carpeting thickly strewn 
with wild flowers; above ns a delightful canopy 
formed of the interlaced branches of trees, through 
which the screened sunlight softly falls. On our 
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 our left rolls the river, whose music 
joins in chorus with the songs of the birds, sing¬ 
ing, we know not where, but everywhere around 
us. As we follow this charming river-side path, 
we have from time to time to press through the 
dense masses of shrubs which surround us—now 
hanging down overhead, now springing 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 cry of a blackbird, as it darts out 
of the tiny thicket where its nest is hid; the rustle 
in the high embankment on our right, and the 
quivering of the Fern-fronds, followed by the 
