148 Bird-Song : and Neu) Zealand Song Birds 
as yet unknown, we would urge a ramble into tlie back country 
if wearied for a while with the monotony of the plains; if after 
inhaling through months and years it may be the heavy 
atmosphere that rests on ground just above sea level, let any 
such try the inspiriting influence of the crisp mountain air. 
If any excuse is needed for refreshing the lungs and laying in 
as it were a fresh stock of health and cheerfulness, let such 
excuse be found, if need be, in an enthusiastic desire to see one 
of our most attractive native plants [L. tetrapetalus\ in the 
freshness of its beauty, amid the natural surroundings which 
lend their aid to enchant the beholder. Now with this object 
in view, sometime in the month of December, explore up stream 
the course of one of the large rivers sweeping so swiftly east¬ 
wards to the sea, penetrate the huge barriers of the Southern 
Alps, trace the wanderings of your limpid guide, till you reach 
some deep bosomed vale closely hemmed in by snow-capped 
mountains, that shoulder to shoulder tower aloft ‘in most 
admired confusion. ’ Stimulated by the pure air, the freshness 
of the scenery, you may almost imagine the age of miracles 
has returned, that old father Time has lifted some of his daily 
increasing burden from your shoulders,—can you dare the chill 
of the morning and watch the rising sun flush with rosy hues 
the snow peaks of the western range, that but now stood out 
cold and impassive against the star-lit sky? Novelty attends 
you at every forward step, only look upward, there is novelty 
once more, the cloud landscapes of the Alps, every varying, 
will shew you ‘effects’ to which your eyes have been unaccus¬ 
tomed. Trace the outline of the ridges of the mountain and 
as you gaze upward note how their brown and purplish-tintea 
sides slope steeply down, ruffled here and there with over¬ 
hanging crags and rocky pinnacles, about whose jagged ledges 
dark foaming cascades, leaping down with hurried bounds to 
the frigid snow-fed stream, that with noise and ceaseless din, 
courses along the smooth worn shingle. Look around, let yoiu 
eyes take their full stint of the sublime scenery that cannot 
be described; in this grand solitude where nature is un¬ 
molested, in negligence unstudied, with all her grand and 
