JUNE IN FRANCONIA. 15 



of the older ornithologists. In fact, it was 

 first described, by Mr. Cassin, in 1851, 

 from a specimen taken, nine years before, 

 near Philadelphia; and its nest remained 

 unknown for more than thirty years longer, 

 the first one having been discovered, appar- 

 ently in Canada, in 1884. 1 



Day after day, the bare, sharp crest of 

 Mount Lafayette silently invited my feet. 

 Then came a bright, favorable morning, and 

 I set out. I would go alone on this my first 

 pilgrimage to the noble peak, at which, al- 

 ways from too far off, I had gazed longingly 

 for ten summers. It is not inconsistent 

 with a proper regard for one's fellows, I 

 trust, to enjoy now and then being without 

 their society. It is good, sometimes, for a 

 man to be alone, especially on a mountain- 

 top, and more especially at a first visit. The 

 trip to the summit was some seven or eight 

 miles in length, and an almost continual as- 

 cent, without a dull step in the whole dis- 

 tance. The Tennessee warbler was sing- 

 ing; but perhaps the pleasantest incident of 

 the walk to the Profile House in front of 

 which the mountain footpath is taken was 

 1 E. E. T. Seton, in The Auk, vol. ii. p. 305. 



