38 KIVERBY 



camped upon a stream which he knows springs out 

 of its very loins. But for some reason or other we 

 had got an idea that Slide Mountain was a very slip- 

 pery customer and must be approached cautiously. 

 We had tried from several points in the valley to 

 get a view of it, but were not quite sure we had seen 

 its very head. When on the Wittenberg, a neigh- 

 boring peak, the year before, I had caught a brief 

 glimpse of it only by climbing a dead tree and cran- 

 ing up for a moment from its topmost branch. It 

 would seem as if the mountain had taken every pre- 

 caution to shut itself off from a near view. It was 

 a shy mountain, and we were about to stalk it 

 through six or seven miles of primitive woods, and 

 we seemed to have some unreasonable fear that it 

 might elude us. We had been told of parties who 

 had essayed the ascent from this side, and had re- 

 turned baffled and bewildered. In a tangle of prim- 

 itive woods, the very bigness of the mountain baffles 

 one. It is all mountain; whichever way you turn 

 and one turns sometimes in such cases before he 

 knows it the foot finds a steep and rugged ascent. 

 The eye is of little service; one must be sure of 

 his bearings and push boldly on and up. One is 

 not unlike a flea upon a great shaggy beast, looking 

 for the animal's head; or even like a much smaller 

 and much less nimble creature, he may waste his 

 time and steps, and think he has reached the head 

 when he is only upon the rump. Hence I ques- 

 tioned our host, who had several times made the 

 ascent, closely. Larkins laid his old felt hat upon 



