A WEEK ON MOUNT WASHINGTON 



I WENT up Mount Washington in the afternoon 

 of August 22d, and came down again in the 

 afternoon of the 29th. Ten years before I had 

 spent a week there, in early July, and had not 

 visited the place since. In some respects, of 

 course, the summit is badly damaged (I have 

 heard it spoken of as utterly ruined) by the pre- 

 sence of the hotel and other buildings, not to men- 

 tion the railway trains, with their daily freight 

 of bustling lunch-box tourists. Still the railway 

 and the hotel are indisputable conveniences ; 

 I should hardly have stayed there so long with- 

 out them ; and in this imperfect world we must 

 not expect to find all the good things in one 

 basket. 



As for the tourists, one need walk but a few 

 steps to be rid of them. As a class they are 

 not enterprising pedestrians. In fifteen minutes 

 you may find yourself where human beings are 

 as far away, practically, as if you were among 

 the highest Andes or on the famous " peak in 

 Darien." There you may sit on a boulder, or re- 

 cline on a mat of prostrate willow, and imagine 



