A veritable wilderness of islands lay about us: from the mere round button of a rock that bore a single fir, to the mountainous stretch of a square mile, densely wooded, and bounded by precipitous cliffs; so close together often that a strip of water ran between no wider than a country lane, or, again, so far that an expanse stretched like the open sea for miles.

Methought I heard a courser neigh, From out yon tuft of blackening firs.

I would, however, say in conclusion that persons who have the opportunities and the inclination can verify the truth of a portion, at least, of what I have stated, in a simple manner and in a short time; for instance, by cutting two or three young fir or spruce saplings, say about six inches in diameter, mark them when cut, and also mark the stumps by driving pegs marked to correspond with the trees.

"Falling gang dropped a big fir," Charlie laughed.

Then, felling a big fir, he manages to get in the way of its fall, and is thrown to the ground.

They scoop watercourses, manure the pines, twist them to a finer fibre, fit the firs to be masts and spars, and, if you keep reasonably out of the track of their affairs, do you no harm.

Thus, in a Servian folk-song, there grows out of the youth's body a green fir, out of the maiden's a red rose, which entwine together.

The day had been sultry, and the moon rose slowly over the mounds of Maiden Bower, once the site of the noble mansion of the Percys, now destroyed and desolate; and fell in dreary softness on tower and wood, illumining the sable firs of Newby Park, and throwing another lustre on the gaudy "gowans" that decked the adjacent meadow.

"And now," said Miss Harson, "before we leave the firs, let us see what is said about them in the Bible.

It was just the beginning of May: each lover, on the first Sunday of that month, planted a young fir, or birch-tree, adorned with flowers, before his fair one's door.

He took his bearings, propped a fallen fir sapling aslant by the sled, and, forgetting he was ready to drop, he ran swiftly hack along the way he came.

That is true, replied the fir, but when winter comes, you will be bared of your glory; and I shall be as I am now.

Confusion blast all mercantile transactions, all traffic, exchange of commodities, intercourse between nations, all the consequent civilization, and wealth, and amity, and link of society, and getting rid of prejudices, and knowledge of the face of the globe; and rot the very firs of the forest that look so romantic alive, and die into desks: Vale.

Deep in the warm vale the village is sleeping, Sleeping the firs on the bleak rock above; Nought wakes, save grateful hearts, silently creeping Up to the Lord in the might of their love.

It led me to a rough western shore, and in front of me stood a great Scotch fir.

All this present reality would fade, his old church, surrounded with gravestones and stunted Scotch firs, would become like a dream, every year losing a little in colour and outline.

But up in Russia, where the snow Sweeps hissing thro' the firs, She simply murmurs soft and low, "Bhjushkst zwmstk rstk pbjunsk pjbrs.