78 Notices of Mount Washington and the vicinity. 
Our younger friends had been persuaded to make packs of 
their great coats, being assured that, although the world was smil- 
iixg below, they would ere long arrive in a region, where they 
would be glad to wrap their limbs in these seeming incumbrances ; 
and so it proved; for, at the distance of a mile from the top of 
the mountain, we were involved in winter. The dark volumes 
of vapor which, from the hotel whence we departed, appeared 
in detached masses, only as a light drapery, gracefully rolling up 
the breast and over the hoary peak of Mount Washington, were 
now congealed, and involved us in a white driving cloud that 
froze on our apparel, and tufted the rocks with splendid crys- 
tallizations of ice. Here our guide, having issued the weleome 
command to dine, opened at once the treasures of his pack, that 
we might obtain vigor for the remainder of our toil, the severest 
part of which was still before us. 
Our refreshments were indeed most acceptable and salutary ; 
but our hands were so benumbed with the cold, that we could 
scarcely convey the food to our mouths. 
From our hasty repast, we started again, as if pursuing or pues 
wae; and struggled onward over immense piles of ruins frosted 
with the congealed vapor, and thus rendered treacherous to the 
feet, which were constantly in danger of sliding into the innu- 
merable chasms and holes that yawned around our path. Our 
toil grew more and more severe,—not a vestige of human foot- 
steps remained, and we were guided only by piles of stones erected 
as landmarks for the adventurer. ‘The last stunted evergreens 
ceased to appear, the wind blew a frozen gale, involving us in 
white palpable clouds, which were rather masses of flying ice 
than ordinary snow; they invested every object, and hung in 
magnificent tufts of long, slender, and perfectly white crystals, 
from every rock and over every chasm. 
Still, an occasional outburst of the sun threw a glorious flood 
of golden light over the enormous peaks that were grouped 
an encouragement to those who have less vigor, that I have known a gentleman 
of a very feeble frame and still feebler health, and with lungs that had suffered 
alarming attacks of disease, ascend Mount Ascutney, about three thousand feet 
a with safety and without excessive fatigue ; ad it was done very slowly | 
with frequen pauses and resting to recover. I was of the party, in 1828, and was 
ied to see how little he suffered. If these rene > are of any wali to the 
thus be saved from injury, their introduction on this 
E Wi: I am quite sure, from considerable observation among 
anc mines, that such suggestions are too Tittle regarded. : 
