Natural history -- Outdoor books; Nature; Nature study; Paris (France) -- Description and travel
In a little hollow where the rougher grasses grew longer a blue
butterfly fluttered and could not get out. He was entangled with his
own wings, he could not guide himself between the grass tops; his wings
fluttered and carried him back again. The grass was like a net to him,
and there he fluttered till the wind lifted him out, and gave him the
freedom of the hills. One small green orchis stood in the grass, alone;
the harebells were many. It is curious that, if gathered, in a few
hours (if pressed between paper) they become a deeper blue than when
growing. Another butterfly went over, large and velvety, flying head to
the wind, but unable to make way against it, and so carried sidelong
across the current. From the summit of the hill he drifted out into the
air five hundred feet above the flowers of the plain. Perhaps it was a
peacock; for there was a peacock-butterfly in Clematis Lane. The
harebells swung, and the dry tips of the grass bent to the wind which
came over the hills from the sea, but from which the sun had dried the
sea-moisture, leaving it twice refined--once by the passage above a
hundred miles of wave and foam and again by the grasses and the hills,
which forced the current to a higher level, where the sunbeams dried
it. Twice refined, the air was strong and pure, sweet like the scent of
a flower. If the air at the sea-beach is good, that of the hills above
the sea is at least twice as good, and twice as strengthening. It
possesses all the virtue of the sea air without the moisture which
ultimately loosens the joints, and seems to penetrate to the very
nerves. Those who desire air and quick recovery should go to the hills,
where the wind has a scent of the sunbeams.
In the short time since ascending the slope the definition of the view
has changed. At first it was clear indeed, and no one would have
supposed there was any mist. But now suddenly every hill stands out
sharp and definite; the scattered hawthorn bushes are distinct; the
hills look higher than before. From about the woods an impalpable
bluish mistiness that was there just now has been blown away. The
yellow squares of stubble--just cleared--far below are whiter and look
drier. I think it is the air that tints everything. This fresh stratum
now sweeping over has altered the appearance of the country and given
me a new scene. The invisible air, as if charged with colour, has
spread another tone broadly over the landscape. Omitting no detail, it
has worked out afresh every little bough of the scattered hawthorn
bushes, and made each twig distinct. It is the air that tints
everything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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