signed to occupy. And, lastly, colours varying from a golden hue to mottled and sober tints.

Such are the most obvious characteristics of the common trout; and however the aquatic tribes may differ in size and structure, the same admirable adaptation to existing circumstances is observable in each. From the Cape of Good Hope to the Isthmus of Suez, from the palm-encircled lakes of the torrid zone to the cold and stony rivers of pitiless Labrador, whatever passes through the paths of the great waters, has a form, a structure, and a garment adjusted with the nicest precision to its wants and circumstances.

The operations of nature, like those of Provividence, are equally interesting in their minuter parts. The hand of Deity is confessed in the magnificence of creation; in those creatures that perambulate the "liquid weight of half the globe;" but in the morning frost-work his influence is noticed by few. Yet, what more beautiful or worthy of remark, than the intricate, varied, and elegant crystallizations, that often form on our windows during a November night, an effect produced by that silent, rapid, invisible agent, which men call frost. As the month advances to a close, its operations are still more wonderful and striking. The ever moving surface of the brooks, that flashed and sparkled to the sunbeams, are changed, in

one night, into a firm crystal pavement, the waters are congealed into ice, they are clothed as with a breast-plate; rapid streams are also arrested in their course; and the little waterfalls present clusters of transparent pillars.

"And thus, it freezes on,

Till morn, late rising o'er the drooping world,
Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears
The various labour of the silent night;

Prone from the dripping cave and dumb cascade,
Whose idle torrents only seem to roar,

The pendant icicle, the frost-work fair,
Where transient hues, and fancy'd figures rise.
The forest bent beneath the plumy wave,
And by the frost refin'd, the whiter snow,
Incrusted hard, and sounding to the tread
Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks
His pining flock, or from the mountain top,
Pleas'd with the slippery surface, swift descends."
THOMSON.

In frosty weather, the constellations are also very brilliant. They shine out "intensely keen," and one starry glitter seems to fill the immensity of space. Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer, appear on the ecliptic; the great and lesser Bears, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Perseus, Auriga, the beautiful Pleiades, the Dolphin's-head, and Swan, the Lyre, and part of Bootes, are visible in different portions of the heavens at ten at night.

337

DECEMBER.

"The cherish'd fields

Put on their winter-robe of purest white :

'Tis brightness all, save where the new snow melts

Along the mazy current. Low the woods

Bow their hoar heads; and, ere the languid sun,

Faint from the west, emits his evening ray,
Earth's universal face, deep hid and chill,
Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide
The works of man."

THOMSON.

READER! there is much in this dull month to interest you, to call forth the best affections of the heart, to cause you to think of Him, who appoints the stormy winds and driving shower to fulfil his purposes of love.

Have you never thought, that without these cloudy days, that driving sleet, and fierce east wind, of which you often so unreasonably complain, that the valleys could not be filled with corn, nor the pastures with increase; that like the

ups and downs, the crosses and privations of this changing state, they are the harbingers of fruitful seasons, to fill your heart with gladness and thanksgiving?

This is a season of repose throughout the vegetable world, the business of the spade and plough is equally suspended; there may be little to amuse you in the fading landscape: but then that little is so fraught with outward signs of wisdom and beneficence, that the heart, which does not feel some interest in beholding them, must be indifferent to the wonders of creation.

Even at this cold season, a few solitary plants look green and pleasant in the hedges. There is neither earing nor harvest, the corn is laid up in the barn, and the autumnal fruits are gathered in ; but that Almighty Being, without whose permission not even a sparrow falls to the ground, is attentive to the privations of these helpless creatures, and remembers them in mercy.

The common groundsel (senecio* vulgaris) affords a ready supply of food to most of the winter birds. This hardy perennial grows wherever its slender fibrous roots can penetrate the earth. If the snow freezes on the leaves, when the sun arises, or the soft south wind begins to blow, its

*Derived from senex, an old man, alluding to the hoary appearance, as exhibited in S. tenuifolius.

greenness revives, and that degree of damp which injures every other kind of esculent plant, but slightly affects it. The chickweed (stellaria* gramimea) is also a citizen of the vegetable kingdom. It grows in almost every situation, from damp and boggy woods to the driest gravel-walks, and is consequently subject to great variations. The severities of winter do not even interrupt its vegeta. tive powers. It produces ripe seeds within eight weeks from the period of their being sown, and is thus renovated seven or eight times, during the course of the season. When the seeds are fully ripe, the six-valved capsule becomes reversed, and discharges them upon the earth. Some are sown where they fall, others are scattered by the wind, and the rain forces them into the soft mould, whence they rapidly reappear, and thus ensure, throughout the year, a plentiful support for the smaller birds.

This simple plant is also an excellent barometer. When its little white flowers open fully in the morning, no rain is likely to fall for some hours; when half concealed, we have showery weather; but if shut up, and covered with its green leafy mantle, reader! you will do well to stay at home. The ivy, the dark growing ivy, the holly with

From stella, a star, descriptive of the star-like, or radiated, appearance of the blossom.