XVII 



THe Cascade and Bellows - Pipe, 

 NotcK Valley, BerKsHire County 



Come here where Greylock rolls 

 Itself toward heaven ; in these deep silences 



World-worn and fretted souls 



Bathe and be clean ! Cares drift like mists awa}\ 



Author Unknown. 



M 



ONDAY, July 226., dawned fair, although 



there were some signs of a storm in the 



lowering gray cloud-folds at the horizon. 



However, we had decided to explore the 



Notch Valley and the Bellows-Pipe, between Greylock 



and the Ragged Mountains. 



We journeyed from Mount O^ta to North Adams, 

 leaving State Street about ten o'clock, and ascended 

 the path to Witt's Ledge. Soon we rounded the 

 Ragged Mountains, entering the woods near Crystal 

 Spring, where we descended the Cascade ravine. Its 

 rocky chasm is beautifully draped with the Common 

 Polypody Ferns, and delicate tufts of Maiden-Hair 

 Spleenwort, which clings in the fissured ledges. The 

 bed-rock appears to be a flinty slate, similar to that of 

 the Tunnel Mountain, It is not so favorable to the 

 growth of the rarer ferns — such as the Rue-in-the-Wall 



2T2 



