We Concluded Therefore To
Wait For Better Weather.
The hunters went out for deer and I to see
the forests.
The rain brought out the fragrance of the drenched
trees, and the wind made wild melody in their tops, while every brown
bole was embroidered by a network of rain rills. Perhaps the most
delightful part of my ramble was along a stream that flowed through a
leafy arch beneath overleaping trees which met at the top. The water
was almost black in the deep pools and fine clear amber in the
shallows. It was the pure, rich wine of the woods with a pleasant
taste, bringing spicy spruce groves and widespread bog and beaver
meadows to mind. On this amber stream I discovered an interesting
fall. It is only a few feet high, but remarkably fine in the curve of
its brow and blending shades of color, while the mossy, bushy pool
into which it plunges is inky black, but wonderfully brightened by
foam bells larger than common that drift in clusters on the smooth
water around the rim, each of them carrying a picture of the
overlooking trees leaning together at the tips like the teeth of moss
capsules before they rise.
I found most of the trees here fairly loaded with mosses. Some
broadly palmated branches had beds of yellow moss so wide and deep
that when wet they must weigh a hundred pounds or even more. Upon
these moss-beds ferns and grasses and even good-sized seedling trees
grow, making beautiful hanging gardens in which the curious spectacle
is presented of old trees holding hundreds of their own children in
their arms, nourished by rain and dew and the decaying leaves
showered down to them by their parents.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 119 of 316
Words from 32297 to 32589
of 85542
