rself, two
youths, the sons of a certain Dr. H., and "Mountain Jim," one of the
famous scouts of the plain, an expert in Indian border warfare, who
acted as guide. The ride at first was one long series of glories and
surprises, of peak and glade, of lake and stream, and of mountain upon
mountain, culminating in the shivered pinnacles of Long's Peak. And as
the sun slowly sank, the pines stood out darkling against the golden
sky, the grey peaks took upon their crests a glory of crimson and
purple, a luminous mist of changing colours filled every glen, gorge,
and canyon, while the echoes softly repeated that peculiar sough or
murmur which accompanies the departing day. Our adventurer, with heart
touched by the magical beauty and magnificence of the scene, crossed a
steep wooded incline into a deep hollow, where, embosomed in the
mountain-solitude, slept a lily-covered lake, cradling white, pure
blossoms and broad green leaves, and aptly named "The Lake of the
Lilies." Calm on its amethyst-coloured waters lay the tremulous shadow
of the great dark pine woods.

Thence she and her companions passed again into the leafy wilderness
which clothes the mountain side up to a height of about 11,000 feet,
cheered, as they climbed slowly upwards on their laborious path, by
delightful vistas of "golden atmospheres and rose-lit summits," such as
broke upon the dreams of him who created in his fancy the Garden of
Armida; upward and onward through the dusky shade, which in itself may
well impress a quick imagination. It is the _silence_ of the forest that
makes its mystery. The only sounds are those of the branches swaying in
the breeze, or of a bough crashing to the ground through decay, or the
occasional voices of the wandering birds; and these seem but to increase
the silence by their inadequateness of contrast. Alone in this
profundity of gloom it is difficult for the traveller to resist the
sense and feeling of a supernatural Presence, and he comes to understand
in what way such eerie legends and grim traditions have grown up about
the forest, and why to the early races its still depths seemed haunted
by the creatures of another world.

Silence and Twilight here, twin-sisters, keep
Their noonday watch, and sail among the shades
Like vaporous shapes half seen;--

and the forest is peopled with the phantoms that are born of Silence and
Twilight.

As they ascended they found that the pines grew smaller and more sparse,