The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-07-07

UoIue away. Hairy NOouptCkeIS llleIe
are. black and white, who fly with a slap
against the tree trunks and pick away I'M
needing me. Their loud calls are some
times answered, but have only once seen
two of the birds together. Spring ham,
mering seems to begin late in February,
and then how the dead limbs sound forth.
| know now why nature let's the dead
limbs stay aloft so long. Crows do not
winter here, but come with the first March
rain.
Here is what l learned from some days
in February and March.
February IA. A morning duty now is to
60 to the headland in the river and look
westward across the white plain to the
other shore. 1t is to see the light create
the woods afresh. Against the darkness
! of the edge of the forest is drawn misty
| cloud of young birch tops. These naked
twigs, individually dark crimson and
blackish plum color, seen from distance
as a smoke stratum against the dark, ex-
press their souls in color which changes
every moment of the day. | think | will
devote whole day to those confessions
from the heart. They are purple, Grim
son. lilac and rose. On dark day | have
seen them blue-the blue of the bloom OF
berry.
To-day the woods were never so still
no wind, no creature. Just here and
there, to make the silence more silent, a
snap OF a crack. sourceless mysteries of
sound. But we have had wind. The last
few nights have been all wind and moon
and stars. Last night the northern lights
outshone the moon and hung from the
zenith down, like great Tapping curtain:
double depths OF blackness below. while
above. the rays. like wind made greenly
visible. blew and died upward into the
moonglow. A Nova Zembla night that
aroused thoughts of the North Pole.
! February IS. 1t was like I; peep into
I some outer world. | had been travelling
all day with a limited horizon. The sky
overcast with the unbroken gray of high,
still clouds. The wind tercely cold, d
gray wind. here and there diving down
through the evergreens to set ANSWERING
and a-rnstling the clinging brown brother
hoods of beech leaves. The hanging Usnea
lichens We're paled by the cold to green
gray and moved stitfiy in the under
searching wind. Then | seemed to come
to the edge Of my gray world. From a
barred hill top l saw along the far north
erl horizon a strip of clear greenness OF
! sky: an unexpected release from the gray.
| And out in the clearness rose katahdin in
uninterrupted afternoon sun-glow. Its
base a mere dim blue beyond the fal
| dimness of the level sea of forest top, but
its snowy head and sides glorious in light
and shadow. 1t had probably been free,
| beyond the clouds all day, but |, tree
entangled, had seen only the gray above.
This evening, on the river, the snow is
| Il III
sing noise. SO there are two currents sea-
ward, the water beneath the ice and this
dry, frozen breath of water above. Some
inter-biding trout perhaps stem the tide
below, while am among the waves above.
March 9-Winter S tenseneSS has relax
ed. Three days of warmth have set loose
all the forest odors and filled the hitherto
scentless air with sweetness. This I>cal
the Creation smell, for it is the breath OF
miles of untouched forests. The snow
has merely settled bit drawn itself
closer, and cannot vet be travelled upon
without snow shoes. The lichens are re
created and glow with color. The very
evergreen needles seem more lush. 1t is
the first long breath that Nature has
taken The sweetness distilled in cleal
drops sparkles in the hanging moss anG
among the leaves of down dropping tree
limbs. Midges, born i'll some bark cleft,
dance in the air. Spiders run slowly ovel
the snow, catching the eye afar Off against
the Wilderness beneath. Little leapine
specks, called snow tleas, are thickly
powdered under some trees, and on the
river banks, armies OF sap flies make theil
daily pilgrimage out on the white plain.
They never seem to use their wings, bu1
walk painfully over the snow. At night
they who do not return to their tree home,
are frozen on the snow surface, and find
them next forenoon thawing out, quite
unhurt. That a way to pass the night
stiff in firm frozen snow Sunrise means
something to them.
At the mouths of the brooks | lister
carefully. 1t seems as if the gurgle be-
meath We're already londer. In the main
river, at the rapids, the ice, never thick
is worn through and there is the forgot
ten water, so eager for the long withheld
light that it absorbs all the blue of the
sky and some of the white of the snow
about, to put into its foam.
The chickadees are quick with theil
''Phoebe-e, Phoe- be-e.'' and the Jays
scream joyfully. Yesterday for the first
time heard, mere points on the farthest
horizon of sound, the cawing of crows
and this morning | saw the rising SUI
CLEAN from their black feathers as some
of the birds flew silently over the river.
These, then, are our first spring birds.
We shall have cold and snow vet, but
they will not leave us again.
March 20-These are among the perfect
days of the year here. Cold nights and
warm, still days. The shadows on the
snow are more blue than ever, These
too, are ''sap days. when the NAPLES
feel the warm thrill of the sun. Yester.
day cut a hole in the smooth bark of
sapling and saw the first clear drops This
marks a season. As the sun crosses the
line he sets flowing the maple sap il
Northern Maine.
! March 2S-Again the south wind has
i been here with rain, and now the brooks
do gurgle more loudly. The open place
in the river has heightened a little, bu
the bordering ice is yet hopelessly thick
To-day, the second arrival from the
South; at sunset heard golden winged
woodpecker call and then hammer Will
all his might An answer came hammer
ed out of the distance. The alder catkins
are surely a bit limper | wonder if the
frogs about Boston are piping now and i
the pool-sde alders there shake dow
their pay in showers of gold. | know
now why alder and birch and hazel cat
| kins are made in the autumn and left tt
brave ont the winter. Think what lessons
they are learning from the winter clouds
/ ho1-i Il Il, 40,