CHOCORUA. 229 



become a mere monument of the decay of a 

 community. Towards Chocorua the land sloped 

 downward until it reached a narrow valley point- 

 ing north and south. Then it began to rise, at 

 first imperceptibly, then plainly, then more and 

 more abruptly, until it became precipitous and 

 climbed high against the sky. At its beginning 

 this slope, which like the one on which we stood 

 was clad in soft birches and poplars, was three 

 miles in width, its north and south limits 

 being sharply marked by rocky spurs of the 

 mountain. As it rose, these buttresses of the 

 mountain drew together and narrowed it. Fi- 

 nally, as it attained to a precipice of bald rock, the 

 source of Chocorua River, they came together 

 and united their height and strength with its 

 ascending mass. Upon the mighty shoulders 

 thus formed rested the sharp horn of Chocorua, 

 three thousand feet above the slender valley at 

 its feet. We were so near to this mountain wall 

 that it seemed to cover half the western sky. 

 The haze concealed all its details of rough forest 

 and stained precipice, leaving it a blue barrier 

 crowding its jagged outlines into a golden sky. 

 Through this sky, towards the edge of the lofty 

 horn, the red sun was drifting and sinking. It 

 did not seem far away, but so near that it might 

 strike upon that menacing ledge of rock, and 

 fall shattered, down, forever down, into an end- 



