224 THE MOUNTAIN. 



in their exclusiveness and grace. A dark amber-colored 

 stream, the water stained from vegetable infusion, and exhibit- 

 ing throughout the year the tint of the mountain waters during 

 the fall of the leaf, wanders, with a thousand curves and 

 foldings, through wastes of reeds, sedges, azaleas, alders, 

 and andromedas, cardinal flowers, " vegetable satyrs," and 

 the more imperial Orchis, with weird Sarracenias and gold- 

 thread Coptis. An ancient and deserted garden of rare 

 and lovely evergreens, varied shrubbery, and beautiful 

 flowers, this little valley seems, in its isolation and seques- 

 tered beauty, to be a fragment of Paradise left unprofaned, 

 to remind us of the splendor of the pristine home and of 

 glories departed. 



ABIES CANADENSIS. The Canadian fir-tree, familiarly 

 known as the " hemlock" of the mountain, is a very abund- 

 ant species. It delights in northern exposures, as if seeking 

 to battle with the coldest winds, asking no sympathy from 

 the more genial gales of the south. It forms large forests, 

 thick and compact, taking a savage and exclusive possession 

 of the surface, and destroying all other forms of vegetable 

 life beneath them. These hemlock forests have a striking 

 and unique appearance, unlike the forests of any other tree. 

 Like the gloomy isles of dark, half-subterranean temples, 

 enveloped in sepulchral gloom, the wanderer feels, as he 

 treads their lonely and sequestered solitudes, that the darkness 

 of night surrounds him at noonday. In sleepy silence, with 

 hushed footsteps, he treads their labyrinths of majestic 

 columns as if veritably in the "land of shades." In the 

 winter they assume an extremely sombre aspect, appearing, 

 in very cold weather, the ground being covered with snow, as 

 if smoked or painted black. Like the forests of the " Inferno," 

 gloomy and peculiar, the tree has a funereal hue, and 

 chills while it invites and offers the protection of its shade. 

 It seems exclusive, and holds its title to the surface by actual 

 possession for hundreds of years. 



The hemlock of the mountain grows sometimes to an enor- 

 mous size, frequently attaining the circumference of 20 feet, 



