2 1 8 Dog-Trotting for Orchids 



of the southeast winds, breathing like a bellows 

 through the narrow vale. The Indians recognized in 

 the roar of winds the anger of the Great Spirit. The 

 Hoosac Highlands near the "Forbidden Mountain" 

 were their hunting grounds, to which they journeyed 

 from their Indian village farther westward near 

 Schaghticoke, not far from Troy-on-the-Hudson. 



Thoreau says of this vale's ** glen-like seclusion over- 

 looking the country at a great elevation between these 

 two mountain walls," that it reminded him of the 

 homesteads of the Huguenots, on the interior hills of 

 Staten Island. 



As Thoreau passed the last house in The Bellows, on 

 his ascent to Greylock, *' Rice" called out and told him 

 that it was still four or five miles to the summit by the 

 path which he had left, though not more than two in a 

 straight line from where he was, but that nobody ever 

 went this way; there was no path and it would be 

 found as '* steep as the roof of a house." But Thoreau 

 took the short cut, notwithstanding Wilbur's warning 

 that he would not reach the summit of Greylock that 

 night. Thoreau says, however: ** I made my way 

 steadily upward in a straight line, through a dense 

 undergrowth of mountain laurel, until the trees began 

 to have a scraggy and infernal look, as if contending 

 with frost goblins, and at length I reached the summit, 

 just as the sun was setting." After taking " one fair 

 view of the country before the sun went down , ' ' Thoreau 

 ' ' set out directly to find water. ' ' It proved to be labor, 

 too. Following down the path for half a mile he came 



