MOUNTAINS. — WILDERNESS ROMANCES. 81 



the}' were, tlie}' are dow striking features of scenerj^ to one 

 climbing toilsomely up the momitaius to the forest. And 

 if you journey thither, praj^ you may have a bright July 

 day over your heads, with a sea of sunshine rolling 

 its gently swelling tides from the foot of the mountains you 

 climb to the far off blue-haze mountains behind which the 

 Canadian wilds stretch away to the Arctic Sea. 



There are manj^ romances connected with the wilderness; 

 — of hermits who sought the depths of the forests to hide 

 some sorrow or crime from the gaze of men ; — of refugees 

 from foreign lands, nobles and princes at home, who came 

 hither to bury themselves in utter obscurity until a new 

 political revolution should restore them to favor and for- 

 tune. Even a Bonaparte came to the solitudes, with wealth 

 and pomp, and left a story that will be repeated as long as 

 men love tlie marvellous. 



"Old John Brown," for years, lived in the wilderness as 

 the friend and counselor of the colored settlers to whom 

 Gerrit Smith, with good will but poor wisdom, gave lands 

 for farms and homes, and ' ' his body lies a-mouldering in 

 the ground," at North Elba, where he had lived, while his 

 soul has been marching on in the events of well nigh a 

 quarter of a centur}^ since he died on the scaffold. 



Then come the homely and pitiful romances of gigantic 

 business enterprises in the wilderness, gone to wreck and 

 ruin. This strange region is a vast l)ed of iron ore. 

 Untold wealth is hidden in the mountains. Strong men 

 have grappled with the problem of its removal; money and 

 thougiit and skill and tremendous toil have been expended' 



