In the open : $b intimate studies and appreciations of natureKirkham, Stanton Davis
History
In the open : $b intimate studies and appreciations of nature
Kirkham, Stanton Davis
Natural history -- Outdoor books
One other neighbor we have, an Audubon hermit-thrush, which might be a
voice merely--like Echo haunting the mountain--and no bird at all. He
appears to sing in the twilight only, and his song, like that of all
thrushes, is spiritual and unworldly. A single white lily, tall and
branching, stands near the camp, and day after day opens its ghostly
racemes in the dusk to white moths which come flitting out of the
forest like winged Psyches; and with the opening of the spirit-like
flower comes the vesper song of the thrush.
Night in the forest is a spell, an enchantment. It descends suddenly
and envelopes us in darkness, tangible and real. The wickiup stands at
the edge of a little clearing, and, as we roll ourselves in our
blankets, we seem to float in inky blackness, while the pines are like
beetling cliffs against the starlit heavens. Darkness and light
confront each other; it is as if we hovered between them and had made
our camp for the night on the borderland. But with the dawn, that
luminous world has vanished and we are again under the familiar pines.
One is impressed most by the wonderful stillness of the night. Not only
is the world blotted out in the enveloping darkness, but it is
voiceless, and there prevails absolute silence. Rarely this is broken
by the yapping of coyotes, or a dry twig snaps sharply under the foot
of some animal.
Not until the wind rises does the forest recover its voice. During the
day there is always music; it is as constant as noise in the city.
Impalpable currents descend from the empyrean to caress only the tops
of the tallest pines, coming no nearer to earth than this, and while
all is silent below there arises a distant chant in the tree tops,
which have been touched by an invisible hand and made to respond to
moods of the sky. Full and resonant, yet with that muffled quality of
tone which makes it appear always to come from a distance, the rhythmic
force of this chant sways one like the vibrations of an orchestra.
Starting at some center, as if at a signal, these tremulous waves of
sound recede farther and farther into the forest and die away in a
sigh.
Here the tendency grows on one to wander in the early morning and again
in late afternoon, to become crepuscular, like the animals, and to stay
in camp in the middle of the day. Deer do not stir abroad in the heat,
nor do fish bite, nor birds sing. This love of dawn and twilight is
partly inspired by fear of man, but it is none the less natural. At
daybreak the deer go down the cañons to the salt-licks, as
surreptitiously as nymphs going to bathe. It is their witching hour, as
midnight is the owls'.
To arise at dawn should be an occasion; to make it usual would mean the
sacrifice of the more subtle impressions, the mind is so readily
blunted by the habitual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account