lete.

After wandering a little way down the rugged bed of this misused
river,--for surely Nature never designed that its waters should be
arrested in their course to turn a saw-mill,--the party collected to
return: with two others, I decided upon walking back, and pleasant it is
to walk through these quiet wild wood-paths, where the chirp of the
birds and the rustle of the leaves alone break in upon the repose.

These mountains are everywhere thickly clothed with wood, saving only
the platform whereon the house is built; deer abound on the lower
ridges, and the bear yet finds ample cover here. A number of these
animals are killed every season by an indefatigable old Nimrod who lives
in the valley beneath, and who breeds some very fine dogs to this sport.

I did promise unto myself that during the coming November I would return
up here, and sojourn with the stout bear-hunter for a few days, for the
purpose of seeing Bruin baited in his proper lair; but regret to say my
plan was frustrated. It must be an exciting chase to rouse the lord of
this wild mountain forest on a sunny morning, with the first hoar frost
yet crisping the feathery pines; and to hear the deep-mouthed hounds
giving tongue where a hundred echoes wait to bay the fierce challenge
back, and to hear the sharp crack of the rifle rattle through the thin
air.

Or, whilst resting upon some crag under the blue sunny sky, to watch the
sea of cold clouds tumbling about far below, and think that they
o'er-canopy a region lower still, about which one's fellows are at the
moment creeping with red noses and watery eyes, or rubbing their frozen
fingers over anthracite stoves, utterly unconscious, poor devils! that

"The sun, when obscured by the clouds, yet above
"Shines not the less bright, though unseen."

On Tuesday at five A.M. was roused to breakfast, and descended into the
lower world to meet the Albany steamer.

I opened my casement and looked forth upon the ocean of mist, whose huge
waves rose and fell as they kept rolling by. It seemed as though river,
valley, and mountain had been overwhelmed by this restless deluge, whose
course was yet unstayed. The sun as yet wanted the power to shine
through the mist; all was dark, chilling, and almost fearful.

Before breakfast I had a last palaver with our guide; he said that the
extreme denseness of the fog gave assured token of "an awful hot day."

At six A.M. our muster was completed, and the