FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 287 



LVI. 



As I write, I am sitting under the mag 

 nificent arch of the Natural Bridge. I 

 have made the ordinary round, following 

 a lateral stream from the hotels, past the 

 great old gnarled arbor vitae trees, to Cedar 

 creek, and thence up along its course 

 through the gorge, under the great arch, 

 to the saltpetre cave, to Hemlock Island, 

 to Lost River, and Lace Water Falls. Then 

 by devious ways among great tulip and 

 hemlock and beech trees and along and 

 over steep hillsides, I gained the ruined 

 summer house or observatory from whence 

 one can see in all directions a multitu 

 dinous host of mountains : Purgatory 

 Mountain and House Mountain, North 

 Mountain and Cave Mountain, and scores 

 of others, with the famed Peaks of Otter 

 away in the southeast. Numerous cones 

 appear from this point, as from almost 

 every other in the valley. The view is 

 superb. 



And then, still following the beaten track, 



