26 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



Stoneham and the marshes of the Saugus to the 

 irregular line of Massachusetts Bay. Long 

 Beach, running out from Lynn to Nahaut, was 

 dazzlingly white against the pure blue of the sea. 

 Little Nahant, Egg Rock, Nahant and Winthrop 

 Head, all snow-covered, stood out in bold relief 

 against the even-tinted water. Between them 

 several schooners appeared now and then work- 

 ing up the coast, the sunlight striking full 

 against their sails. High intervening land cut 

 off a view of the wooded and rocky Beverly 

 shore ; but the Danvers Asylum could be 

 plainly seen, like a great feudal castle, crowning 

 one of the highest ridges. 



Southward a nest of cities rested on the fork 

 of the Charles and the Mystic. The chilled 

 breath of half a million people hung over them 

 and their crowded homes, but it did not obscure 

 the picture of the harbor with its forts, islands, 

 and moving sails, nor the more distant pano- 

 rama of the Neponset Valley and Hull, Hing- 

 ham, and the Scituate shore. This view of 

 Boston and its densely populated neighbors has 

 a strange fascination about it. There is little 

 beauty in its blending of roofs, chimneys, tele- 

 graph poles, church spires, flashing window- 

 panes and bits of white steam or darker smoke, 

 yet in spite of its distance and silence it has the 

 mystery of life about it. From a mountain-top 



