MOUNTAINS AND HILLS 



219 



In considering mountains for their pictu- 

 resque appearances, the ascent of them claims 

 some attention, for, oddly enough, mankind in 

 general will have it that the only way to see a 

 mountain or a valley is from the mountain's 

 top. One marvels at the universal predilection 

 for the " view," and at times the wonder grows 

 if the energy spent in scrambling up to high 

 places is not worthy of a better cause. It is all 

 of a piece with hanging over Niagara and being 

 agitated by the " bigness" of things, or looking 

 through the reverse end of the opera-glass and 

 wondering over the smallness of things. The 

 man in Paris who climbs the stairs of that 

 wearisome Column of July, to see the city lying 

 below him like a checker-board, is cousin-ger- 

 man to the man who climbs Mt. Blanc to see the 

 " view," and, incidentally, the smallness of his 

 Chamonii hotel lying below him in the valley. 

 Like other people, I have done my share of 

 mountain-climbing, but I never felt repaid for 

 the exertion, and I may add that I never had 

 much sympathy with the "view" as seen from 

 mountain-tops. It is usually said to be "grand," 

 but to me it has been so only in a scenic, pan- 

 oramic way. Even from such comparatively 

 low places as the Catakill Mountains, or the 



