Whatever its work, the ice for this winter has nearly completed it. In early December its crystalline structure was that of ferns, laid flat and interwoven, making it strong and elastic. All semblance of these has vanished, and there remains but a loosely adhering structure built like the Giant’s Causeway in the north of Ireland of vertical irregular columns jammed together side by side. Moisture is all between these, and if the temperature is below freezing cements them firmly together, and it is safe to walk on the surface. The ice is almost a foot thick still, but let a warm spring sun in on it, and this cement softens, and what seems a firm foundation crumbles and fails beneath your foot. All along the edges to-day the process of disintegration was going on, and you could hear the little seeping swan song of these ice columns as they slid apart and lay flat, making mush ice in the open water where they soon dissolved and disappeared. Thus the ice waits the mandate of the spring. Some day, soon, it will fall apart as if at a word, and vanish, and by that token we shall know that the winter has really gone, and we shall go about in a pleasant glow, listening for the first voice of the spring frogs. INDEX A Actias luna, 14 Afrite, 243 Algonquin, 251 Amina, 10 Apple tree, 110, 116, 132 Arbor vitæ, 210, 211 Arctic barrens, 4 Arethusa, 155, 201 Asplenium trichomanes, 84 B Bahamas, 70 Barnacle, 165 Beaver, 231 Bedlam, 242 Bee, honey, 36 Beech, 98, 101, 119, 120 Bermudas, 90 Betula alba, 195 ---- lutea, 195 Birch, 8, 10, 13, 71, 103, 112, 118, 135, 139, 149, 188, 210 Birch, yellow, 194, 196, 197 ---- white, 197 Blackberry, 17 Blueberry, 34, 101 Bluebird, 109, 110, 117 Blue Hill, 89, 95, 98, 101, 102, 105, 217 Bog-hobble, 201 Bream, 239 Buttercup, 127 Buttonball, 101 C Calamus, 228 Calopogon, 200 Callosamia promethia, 14 Camelot, 174 Carolinas, 92 Cassandra, 204, 205 Cat, 145, 189 Cat-o-nine-tails, 126 Cedar, 113, 139, 140, 186, 194 ---- red, 91, 92, 94, 201, 202, 210 ---- white, 205, 207, 209, 211 Cerberus, 247 Cherry, wild, 177 Chestnut, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 118, 145 Chickadee, 7, 117, 120, 121 Chicken, 114 Chickweed, 69 Chipmunk, 181, 183 Cranberry, mountain, 95 Crow, 110, 111, 112, 117, 143, 144, 145, 183, 185 D Dandelion, 69 Deer, 143 Demoiselle flies, 84 Dragon fly, 84 Duck, wild, 55 E Eliot memorial bridge, 95 Ethiopia, 243 Ettrick Shepherd, 26 F Fern, 51, 52, 70, 104 ---- Christmas, 77, 78, 84 ---- cinnamon, 73, 81 ---- crested shield-, 80 ---- evergreen wood-, 97, 104 ---- flowering, 75 ---- hay-scented, 82 ---- interrupted, 73 ---- lady, 83 ---- maidenhair spleenwort, 84 ---- ostrich, 71, 74, 81 ---- polypody, 82, 83, 84, 85, 97, 104, 105 ---- royal, 76 ---- seed, 176 ---- sensitive, 75 ---- spinulose wood-, 79 Flag, blue, 127 Flicker, 115, 116, 117 Fly, caddice, 163 ---- house, 30, 31, 32, 33 Fox, 33, 143, 145 Frog, 142 G