32 IRature Studies in Berfcsbire. 



sublimities of the earth are emphasised by enormous 

 heights. Its beauties lie closest to the less ambitious 

 hills. 



So, as the eye becomes more familiar with this 

 peak which stands guard over Sheffield and Egre- 

 mont, one learns to hold it in greater respect and 

 affection. Seen from the South Egremont and Great 

 Harrington side, whence it seems to rise abruptly 

 from the valley, and make first a quick and then a 

 more gradual approach to the clouds, it justifies the 

 preference of the older people of the region, who 

 resented the attempt to christen it "Mt. Everett," 

 and clung to the old name, "The Dome." A dome 

 it is in outline and in mass, rounded, soaring, crown- 

 ing its lower spurs and ridges, as the grand curves 

 of St. Peter's top its nave and transepts. It rises 

 twenty-six hundred feet above sea-level, and nine- 

 teen hundred above the valley. Its sides are clad in 

 a growth of maples, chestnuts, and birches, as far as 

 the upper ledges where the scrub-oaks and pines 

 compete with the blueberry bushes in the struggle 

 for existence. Here and there a few pines and hem- 

 locks remain to tell the tale of a glory which has 

 been shorn away from these slopes ; and in the very 

 heart of the mountainside, facing the sunrise, a deep 

 and precipitous glen, the channel of a fitful stream, is 

 dark with evergreen foliage. 



Of course the summit of this mountain early be- 

 came a place coveted for the soles of my feet. There 

 is but little pedestrian ambition among the Berkshire 



