XVII 



The Cascade and Bello-ws - Pipe, 

 NotcK Valley, BerKsHire County 



Come here where Greylock rolls 

 Itself toward heaven ; in these deep silences 



World-worn and fretted souls 



Bathe and be clean ! Cares drift like mists away. 



Author Unknown. 



M 



ONDAY, July 22d, dawned fair, although 

 there were some signs of a storm in the 

 lowering gray cloud-folds at the horizon. 

 However, we had decided to explore the 

 Notch Valley and the Bellows- Pipe, between Greylock 

 and the Ragged Mountains. 



We journeyed from Mount CEta to North Adams, 

 leaving State Street about ten o'clock, and ascended 

 the path to Witt's Ledge. Soon we rounded the 

 Ragged Mountains, entering the woods near Crystal 

 Spring, where we descended the Cascade ravine. Its 

 rocky chasm is beautifully draped with the Common 

 Polypody Ferns, and delicate tufts of Maiden-Hair 

 Spleenwort, which clings in the fissured ledges. The 

 bed-rock appears to be a flinty slate, similar to that of 

 the Tunnel Mountain. It is not so favorable to the 

 growth of the rarer ferns — such as the Rue-in-the-Wall 



