582 Meditations on Mountains. 



You are on a plantation of bog-myrtle, of humble aspect, but richer, and 

 more refreshing in its odour, than any thing else of which the vegetable 

 kingdom can boast ; save, perhaps, that modest violet, which wraps 

 herself the livelong day in a leaf, in order that she may pour all her 

 sweetness upon the air of night. 



Ascending one slope, and descending another now jumping a rill 

 and again fetching a circuit, in order to avoid a quagmire you come to 

 the foot of an elevation loftier than the rest, and crested at top with 

 immense masses of stones, of very fantastic shapes. If it were not for a 

 certain " land-blink" a volume of air which has a mysterious gleami- 

 ness, just over the stones, you would fancy them to be the fringe of the 

 mountain, and that, if you were on the top of them, you would be half 

 way to the summit, at the least. Emboldened by the prospect, you 

 march forward ; but, though the road be long, and, in some places abun- 

 dantly steep, the provoking mountain keeps gradually growing out of 

 the earth, ascends as you ascend, and seems to recede as you approach. 

 As you come nearer to the rocks, the ground becomes a little more 

 grassy ; and you perceive a black thing near you, which appears to be 

 animated. You go toward it, and it hops about as if lame, yet bounding 

 with great strength ; and, at the distance of many yards, you can see the 

 gloss of its keen black eye, and the size and point of its formidable bill. 

 " Curcq, curcq, curcq \" hollow as ever enchanter muttered a spell, and 

 dismal as is the voice of the doomster, when the jury, without retiring, 

 have said " guilty \" and hope there is none " Curcq, curcq, curcq !" 

 It is the mountain-raven, cowardly to strength a match for his own, but 

 voracious, cruel, and savage, and sparing nothing over which he has 

 power. To grouse, and Alpine hares, and lambs, and sheep when they 

 are lame, he is more formidable than the eagle, because more treacherous. 

 The eagle sails aloft in the open day leans in the air against the sun, 

 and sends down his shadow as a declaration of war ; and, if he fails in 

 his " stoop/' he degrades not his royalty by stratagem and bush-fighting. 

 But this dark-grey ruffian, with his hollow and sepulchral " curcq/' 

 steals upon his victims unawares, and, if possible, when they are asleep 

 darts first at one eye, and then at another drives that strong, sharp, and 

 leaden-coloured beak right through the centre of the ball and, while 

 they are in darkness and in agony, digs into their vitals. Even if you 

 were to slumber near his haunt, your bones would bleach in the wilder- 

 ness, if he should steal upon you with a second thrust of the beak. The 

 villain understands anatomy, too ; for, in the case of the smaller animals, 

 one thrust can divide the vessels of the neck, with more rapidity, and 

 equal certainty, than if the deed were done by a butcher. The very sight 

 of the raven convinces you that there is no good in him ; and, as he hops 

 about, as if lame and in pain, you give him chase, thinking to rid the 

 world of one black villain. But he disappoints you, at the very moment 

 that you think yourself sure of him bids you defiance in his " curcq, 

 curcq, curcq \" and flies on strong wing to the loftiest and most inac- 

 cessible cleft of the rock. 



When you come to the stony barrier, you have to clamber up on 

 hands and feet ; but you are paid as soon as your labour is at an end. 

 What a scene ! The mountain is still some miles distant ; and, in the 

 intermediate space, there is an amphitheatre, of the existence of which 

 you did not even dream. From the sides of the mountain, the deep 

 gullies of which are now thrown into shade by the far westward and 



