icut and
Massachusetts, altogether presenting in its immensity a landscape as
variegated and charming as it was wondrously beautiful and attractive--a
marvellous picture of indescribable loveliness never to be forgotten.

"How inspiringly magnificent!" said Fillmore Flagg: "All the sublimity
of my nature is satisfied."

"And I," said Fern Fenwick, "am too profoundly impressed to talk. I
would that I could spend hours here in silent admiration."

"I think," said Mrs. Bainbridge, "that we would better move further back
on the rocky summit where doubtless, sheltered seats may be found, then
we can all enjoy this most wonderful of views at our leisure and with
some degree of comfort."

"Yes," said George Gaylord, "that will be ever so much nicer."

"Stop a moment," said Fern Fenwick, who for some moments had been
examining the huge boulder which sheltered them, "Have you noticed the
curious formation of this immense stone? How many hundreds of tons it
may weigh, I hardly dare guess. Geologically speaking, it is a 'stranger
rock,' not in any way related to the rocks of this mountain, nor of the
mountains near here. It is a mammoth conglomerate of such an
interestingly curious compound and of such flinty hardness. At the time
of its formation enormous pressure, coupled with the most intense heat,
must have molded this strange mass together. Coarse and fine gravel,
smooth, round pebbles, from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a
two-hundred-pound boulder, are all jumbled together in great confusion,
and so firmly cemented in this immense globular mass of that peculiar,
tenacious clay of greenish gray color, which forms so large a part of
the drift formation, and which is so widely distributed over the face
of our globe--that strange, unaccountable, isolated and unrelated
formation, which still remains an unsolved puzzle by our best
geologists. I wish you to observe the long sides of this strange rock,
especially where the exposed sides of the pebbles have been worn down
smooth and even with the clay--how they are marked and striated by
shallow grooves, all running in one direction as straight as though
graven by rule. Is it possible that any freak or flood of the glacial
period could have floated this huge rock to its resting place on the
very summit of this high mountain, almost two thousand five hundred feet
above the level of the sea? Oh! tell me, ye listening mortals, or ye
winged winds that blow and pull my ribbon