There were whortleberries, or
huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in abundance; bilberries
dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. The vines that wreathed
the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes,
but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly
sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut,
filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the
stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they
did not mind the consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied
by a large bed of May-apples, [Footnote: Kilvert's Ravine, above Pine-tree
Point.] the fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe,
August being the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still
green, and wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great
numbers of the woodchucks' burrows on the hills, while partridges and
quails were seen under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood,
[Footnote: _Cornus sericea_.
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