146 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



THE WATER DASHES DOWN IN PICTURESQUE 

 WATERFALLS. 



of outline. For a hundred miles or 

 more on the clearer days, one can see 

 down a valley and be enchanted by its 

 multitudinous and luxuriantly foliaged 

 trees. Mountains have proverbially 

 rugged, barren tops, but these, while 

 high enough to be picturesque and to 

 afford pure air, are not lofty enough 

 to rise above the natural limit that we 

 call the "tree line." 



This arboreal setting is so dense as 

 to produce the impressiveness of the 

 primitive wild. It would be, indeed, 

 the foot of a brave man that would try 

 to depart from some of the paths and 

 penetrate the tangled wilderness. But 

 the art of man at great labor and ex- 

 pense has made good roads and by- 

 paths that lead into many of these 



deeper recesses. Here the lover of birds 

 may listen to the song of the hermit 

 thrush, perhaps the loveliest of all 

 singers, and to the rich, yet more ple- 

 bian notes of the wood thrush. War- 

 blers with their interminable mingling 

 of dainty notes Hit from branch to 

 branch and their exasperating variety 

 of color and marking lead one on tan- 

 talizingly to complete identification of 

 each variety. 



The lover of trees can here wander 

 back in imagination to primitive days, 

 or to the time when the red man went 

 on the warpath, or pursued the fleet 

 and fleeing game. The lover of the 

 smaller forms of plant life here revels 

 in their luxuriant variety, and occa- 

 sionally has the delight, known only to 

 a persistent botanist, of finding in these 

 dim recesses some flower to him un- 

 known. 



But perhaps as a Mecca for all nat- 

 ural scientists no other place can be 

 more alluring for the enthusiastic geol- 

 ogist and mineralogist. Treasures are 

 to be had for the picking up. To the 

 right and to the left and in front one 



AWAY THROUGH THE GURGLING RAVINES. 



