DYER'S HOLLOW. 71 



To see Dyer's Hollow at its best, the visi- 

 tor should enter it at the western end, and 

 follow its windings till he stands upon the 

 bluff looking out upon the Atlantic. If his 

 sensations at all resemble mine, he will feel, 

 long before the last curve is rounded, as if 

 he were ascending a mountain ; and an odd 

 feeling it is, the road being level, or sub- 

 stantially so, for the whole distance. At 

 the outset he is in a green, well-watered val- 

 ley on the banks of what was formerly Little 

 Harbor. The building of the railway em- 

 bankment has shut out the tide, and what 

 used to be an arm of the bay is now a body 

 of fresh water. Luxuriant cat-tail flags 

 fringe its banks, and cattle are feeding near 

 by. Up from the reeds a bittern will now 

 and then start. I should like to be here 

 once in May, to hear the blows of his stake- 

 driver's mallet echoing and reechoing among 

 the close hills. At that season, too, all the 

 uplands would be green. So we were told, 

 at any rate, though the pleasing story was 

 almost impossible of belief. In August, as 

 soon as we left the immediate vicinity of 

 Little Harbor, the very bottom of the valley 

 itself was parched and brown; and the look 



