614 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



customary labor of threading the forests in any direction among the 

 mountains. Adjoining the streams there are always obstacles like fallen 

 trees and a thick growth of alders ; and, in climbing the steeper ascents, 

 a thick growth of moss conceals many deep chasms between blocks of 

 stone; but attention will prevent any serious calamity. It is no easy 

 task to pass over the side of the great cleft which looks so smooth. 

 That beautiful green short growth, which so pleasantly arrests the eye 

 upon the range, as everywhere else, is a nearly impenetrable thicket of 

 stubbed spruces and crooked poplars. Fortunate is the person who can 



emerge from it with 

 whole garments. In 

 ^ the sketch, tiny 

 streams are seen to 

 flow down the upper 

 part. At the very 

 head of this cleft is 

 a wall that bars all 

 further progress in 

 that direction, as ex- 

 hibited in Fig. 82. 

 This view is seem- 

 ingly about midway 

 in the gorge, above 

 the tall trees. To- 

 wards Randolph 

 there is a uniform, 

 sharp slope to the 

 road. Above, the 

 walls tower perhaps 

 1500 feet immedi- 

 ately under the head 

 of the mountain, which cannot be seen by the climber. The edges are 

 more jagged than the graceful curves about Tuckerman's ravine, and the 

 cleft possesses more elements of grandeur. As this ravine was first 

 described by Starr King, it seems proper to restore the name, which, 

 though placed upon the county map, seems to be generally forgotten. It 



Fig. 82. HEAD-WALL OF KING'S RAVINE. 



