HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 35 



mains and makes up most of the soil, all the 

 Buperincumbent rock having been carried away. 



Slide Mountain had been a summons and a 

 challenge to me for many years. I had fished 

 every stream that it nourished, and had camped 

 in the wilderness on all sides of it, and when- 

 ever I had caught a glimpse of its summit I 

 had promised myself to set foot there before 

 another season had passed. But the seasons 

 came and went, and my feet got no nimbler 

 and Slide Mountain no lower, until finally, one 

 July, seconded by an energetic friend, we 

 thought to bring Slide to terms by approaching 

 him through the mountains on the east. With 

 a farmer's son for guide we struck in by way of 

 Weaver Hollow, and, after a long and desper- 

 ate climb, contented ourselves with the Whit- 

 tenburg, instead of Slide. The view from the 

 Whittenburg is in many respects more striking, 

 as you are perched immediately above a broader 

 and more distant sweep of country, and are 

 only about two hundred feet lower. You are 

 here on the eastern brink of the Southern Cats- 

 kills, and the earth falls away at your feet and 

 curves down through an immense stretch of 

 forest till it joins the plain of Shokan, and 

 thence sweeps away to the Hudson and beyond. 

 Slide is southwest of you, six or seven miles 

 distant, but is visible only when you climb 

 into a treetop. I climbed and saluted him and 

 promised to call next time. 



We passed the night on the Whittenburg, 

 sleeping on the moss, between two decayed 



