132 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



serrated and feathery edges. This view was almost the very first ever 

 taken of this peculiar form of snow-ice; and had it not been for the 

 self-denial of my late friend Mr. A. F. Clough, and his intense love of 

 the grand and beautiful in nature, it is probable that many years would 

 have elapsed before another artist would have had the inclination, much 

 less the courage, to encounter the difficulties and dangers that presented 

 themselves to a person who contemplated spending a winter on the 

 summit of one of our highest mountains. 



In the illustration entitled Snow-ice, the frost feathers are elongated, 

 and form immense feathery masses two or three feet in length. On 

 account of the boards being loose, it has fallen off from the side of the 

 building ; but this is an advantage, since the corner of the building can be 

 seen, and one can get a better idea of its form and length. The view was 

 taken on the summit of Mt. Washington by Mr. B. W. Kilburn, in 1872, 

 who, by his perseverance and skill, has made our Alpine scenery known 

 to tens of thousands who have never visited the mountains. 



THE WEATHER AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 



As to the extraordinary weather on our mountains in winter, the follow- 

 ing description is a typical illustration of two days on Moosilauke : 



On the first day of January the sun rose clear. We were above the clouds, and a 

 grander spectacle one does not often behold. The clouds seemed to roll and surge like 

 the billows of the ocean. They were of every dark and of every brilliant hue : here 

 they were resplendent with golden light, and there they were of silvery brightness ; 

 here of rosy tints, there of sombre gray ; here of snowy whiteness, there of murky 

 darkness ; here gorgeous with the play of colors, and there the livid light flashes deep 

 down into the gulfs formed by the eddying mist, while 



" Far overhead 



The sky, without a vapor or a stain, 

 Intensely blue, even deepened into purple 

 When nearer the horizon it received 

 A tincture from the mist that there dissolved 

 Into the viewless air. . . . The sky bent round 

 The awful dome of a most mighty temple, 

 Built by Omnipotent hand for nothing less 

 Than infinite worship. So beautiful, 

 So bright, so glorious ! . . . Such a majesty 

 In yon pure vault ! So many dazzling tints 

 In yonder waste of waves." 



