Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 15, 2025
There is yet another passage in which it is difficult to believe that Dante had not the pine-forest in his mind.
Shortly afterwards, we entered a pine-barren, or, rather, I might call it a pine-forest, through which we struck on a well-defined track, the grass on either side being so tall that we could scarcely see over it. We had been going on for several hours, when we suddenly found ourselves in a more open space.
At present the environs are malarious; but at the time when the naval station was established here the climate must have been much more healthy; on account, probably, of the great pine-forest which stretched along the shore, and of which there are still some small remains towards the Belvedere. At that time the Natisone debouched close to the town, and there was ample anchorage for ships.
The mother sings the old songs over the cradle; and the child hears tell of sprites and demons before it hears of the good God who `sends forth the snow and rain, the hail and vapour, and the stormy winds fulfilling his word. And when the child is grown to be a man or woman, the northern lights shooting over the sky, and the sighing of the winds in the pine-forest, bring back those old songs, and old thoughts about demons and sprites; and the stoutest man trembles.
The sandy soil of the third tier is sown with rye or oats and fringed by the pine-forest, its contours showing black against the sky. The northern ridge contains little hills standing singly. One of them is the highest in the neighbourhood and is crowned by a solitary pine.
Now the picture glowed with the wealth and gorgeousness of the torrid zone; now the ice-fields of the North rose into view; anon a pine-forest; then a wild seashore; but always the same three flying figures; always the horrible three-formed harpy pursuing the enchanter, and beside her the evil spirit with the dragonfly wings.
Now you enter a dark pine-forest, to find yourself before long emerging on to an open stretch of wild moorland; and so you cross the col, and commence to drop down into another valley, narrow and shut in by towering mountains. Waterfalls sparkle in the sun as they tumble over the cliffs, and the still unmelted snow stands out white and glistering on the distant hill-tops.
The end of a three years' conflict, in which the Gothic host was encamped in the pine-forest of Ravenna, and where the "Battle of the Ravens" is commemorated in the old German hero-saga, was that, in the winter of 493, the last refuge of Odoacer opened its gates. Odoacer was promised his life, but the compact was broken soon. His people proclaimed Theodorich their king.
On the third day our guide proposed to conduct us to a lake in the mountains where we could float for deer. Our journey commenced in a steep and rugged ascent, which brought us, after an hour's heavy climbing, to an elevated region of pine-forest, years before ravished by lumbermen, and presenting all manner of obstacles to our awkward and incumbered pedestrianism.
Let us go!" I answered, and immediately he led the way. I followed him deep into the pine-forest. Neither of us said much while yet the sacred gloom of it closed us round. We came to larger and yet larger trees older, and more individual, some of them grotesque with age. Then the forest grew thinner. "You see that hawthorn?" said my guide at length, pointing with his beak.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking