38 HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 



Woodland Valley only men may essay the 

 ascent. Larkins is the upper inhabitant, and 

 from our camping-ground near his clearing we 

 set out early one June morning. 



One would think nothing could be easier to 

 find than a big mountain, especially when one 

 is encamped upon a stream which he knows 

 springs out of its very loins. But for some 

 reason or other we had got an idea that Slide 

 Mountain was a very slippery customer and 

 must be approached cautiously. We had tried 

 from several points in the valley to get a view 

 of it, but were not quite sure we had seen its 

 very head. When on the Whittenburg, a 

 neighboring peak, the year before, I had caught 

 a brief glimpse of it only by climbing a dead 

 tree and craning up for a moment from its top- 

 most branch. It would seem as if the moun- 

 tain had taken every precaution to shut itself 

 off from a near view. It was a shy mountain, 

 and we were about to stalk it through six or 

 seven miles of primitive woods, and we seemed 

 to have some unreasonable fear that it might 

 elude us. We had been told of parties who 

 had essayed the ascent from this side, and had 

 returned baffled and bewildered. In a tangle 

 of primitive woods, the very bigness of the 

 mountain baffles one. It is all mountain; 

 whichever way you turn — and one turns some- 

 times in such cases before he knows it — the 

 foot finds a steep and rugged ascent. 



The eye is of little service; one must be 

 sure of his bearings and push boldly on and up. 



