tube, so fine and yet so flute-like and
resonant the song appeared. At times it was like a musical whisper
of great sweetness and power. The birds were numerous about the
summit, but we saw them nowhere else. No other thrush was seen,
though a few times during our stay I caught a mere echo of the
hermit's song far down the mountain-side. A bird I was not prepared
to see or to hear was the black-poll warbler, a bird usually found
much farther north, but here it was, amid the balsam firs, uttering
its simple, lisping song.

[Footnote 1: Bicknell's thrush turns out to be the more
southern form of the gray-cheeked thrush, and is found on the
higher mountains of New York and New England.]

The rocks on the tops of these mountains are quite sure to attract
one's attention, even if he have no eye for such things. They are
masses of light reddish conglomerate, composed of round wave-worn
quartz pebbles. Every pebble has been shaped and polished upon some
ancient seacoast, probably the Devonian. The rock disintegrates
where it is most exposed to the weather, and forms a loose sandy and
pebbly soil. These rocks form the floor of the coal formation, but
in the Catskill region only the floor remains; the superstructure
has never existed, or has been swept away; hence one would look for
a coal mine here over his head in the air, rather than under his
feet.

This rock did not have to climb up here as we did; the mountain
stooped and took it upon its back in the bottom of the old seas, and
then got lifted up again. This happened so long ago that the memory
of the oldest inhabitants of these parts yields no clew to the time.

A pleasant task we had in reflooring and reroofing the log-hut with
balsam boughs against the night. Plenty of small balsams grew all
about, and we soon had a huge pile of their branches in the old hut.
What a transformation, this fresh green carpet and our fragrant bed,
like the deep-furred robe of some huge animal, wrought in that dingy
interior! Two or three things disturbed our sleep. A cup of strong
beef-tea taken for supper disturbed mine; then the porcupines kept
up such a grunting and chattering near our heads, just on the other
side of the log, that sleep was difficult. In my wakeful mood I was
a good deal annoyed by a little rabbit that kept whipping in at our
dilapidated door and nibbling at our bread and hardtack. He
persisted even after the gray of the morning appeared. Then about