94 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



glittering and bright over a pebbly bed, although the margin 

 on the hither side was somewhat swampy, with tufts of willows 

 and bushes of dark alder fringing it here and there, and dip- 

 ping their branches in its waters the farther bank was skirted 

 by a tall grove of maple, hickory, and oak, with a thick under- 

 growth of sumach arrayed in all the gorgeous garniture of au- 

 tumn, purples and brilliant scarlets and chrome yellows, mixed 

 up and harmonized with the dark copper foliage of a few sere 

 beeches, and the gray trunks apparent here and there through 

 the thin screen of the fast falling leaves. 



Beyond this grove, the bank rose bold and rich in swelling 

 curves, with a tine corn-field, topped already to admit every 

 sunbeam to the ripening ears. A buckwheat stubble, conspicu- 

 ous by its deep ruddy hue, and two or three brown pastures 

 divided by high fences, along the lines of which flourished a 

 copious growth of cat-briers and sumachs, with here and there 

 a goodly tree waving above them, made up the centre of the 

 picture. Beyond this cultured knoll there seemed to be a deep 

 pitch of the land clothed with a hanging wood of heavy tim- 

 ber ; and, above this again, the soil surged upward into a huge 

 and round-topped hill, with several golden stubbles, shining out 

 from the frame- work of primeval forest, which, dark with many 

 a mighty pine, covered the mountain to the top, except where 

 at its western edge it showed a huge and rifted precipice of 

 rock. 



To the right, looking down the stream, the hills closed in 

 quite to the water's brink on the far side, rough and uncultiva- 

 ted, with many a blue and misty peak discovered through the 

 gaps in their bold, broken outline, and a broad, lake-like sheet, 

 as calm and brightly pictured as a mirror, reflecting their in- 

 verted beauties so wondrously distinct and vivid, that the 

 amazed eye might not recognise the parting between reality and 

 shadow. An old gray mill, deeply embosomed in a clump of 

 weeping willows, still verdant, though the woods were sere and 

 waxing leafless, explained the nature of that tranquil pool, 

 while, beyond that, the hills swept down from the rear of the 

 building, which contained the parlor whence the two sportsmen 

 gazed, and seemed entirely to bar the valley, so suddenly, and 

 in so short a curve, did it wind round their western shoulder. 

 To the left hand, the view was closed by a thick belt of second 

 growth, through which the sandy road and glittering stream 

 wandered away together on their mazy path, and over which 



