Up Sterling 



tance, gave the slope and ridge of Sterling 

 such a dark and bristling aspect. They 

 were not large not more than thirty feet 

 high on the average but sturdy, large- 

 limbed, and thickly set, good types of moun- 

 tain trees, which always give the impression 

 of tremendous vitality and endurance 

 rooted among the everlasting rocks for more 

 than a century's vigorous life. 



On and up I clambered, sometimes 

 squeezing through a narrow cleft in a ledge 

 and scaling the treacherous pathway of 

 broken rock within, sometimes drawing my- 

 self up a steep slope by overhanging boughs 

 or shrubs, sometimes digging toes and fin- 

 gers into the mold threaded with rootlets 

 of underbrush, and struggling on hands and 

 knees up to a vantage-ground where I could 

 rest and catch my breath. I was thankful 

 that it was too late in the season for tor- 

 menting mosquitoes and black flies, though 

 the aggravating, invisible midges still tor- 

 tured me with their burning bites. How- 

 ever, these pests do not drive one crazy, 

 like a swarm of shrill-humming mosquitoes. 

 If I had tried to scale that tangled slope in 



12 177 



