ASCENT TO MOUNT TAHAWUS. 21 



tween us and it, filled with spruce trees about three 

 feet high, and growing so close together as to form a 

 perfect matting. Through these it was almost im- 

 possible to force our way, and indeed, in one instance, 

 I walked a considerable distance on the tops, without 

 touching ground. This difficulty being surmounted, 

 next came the immense cone of rock, bending its awful 

 arch away into the heavens, seemingly conscious of 

 its majesty and grandeur. Up this we were compelled 

 to go, a part of the time, on all fours ; but at length, 

 at four o'clock, we stood on the bald crown. The 

 sun, though stooping to the western horizon, seemed 

 near the zenith, and not to move one minute of a 

 degree downward on its path. But how shall I de- 

 scribe the prospect below and around ? I have stood 

 on the Alps, and looked off on a sea of peaks, and re- 

 mained awe- struck amid the majesty and terror around 

 me — feeling as if I were treading on the margin of 

 Jehovah's mantle. But the bright snow-cliffs and 

 flashing glaciers gave life and animation to the scene, 

 while here all was green, dark, and sombre. Those 

 are not peaks around us, but huge misshapen masses, 

 pushing their gigantic proportions heavenward — now 

 formed of black rock that undulates along the sum- 

 mit like a frozen wave, and now covered with low 

 dark fir trees, that seem like a drapery of mourning 

 over some sleeping or dead monster. All around is 

 wilder than fancy ever painted or described. Scarce 

 a hand's breadth of cultivated land in the whole mo- 

 tionless panorama. There, far, far below, stretching 

 away for miles, is a deep dark lane through the forest, 

 3* 



