BALL-FACE MOUNTAIN. 273 



fifty feet above the surrounding foliage, and then 

 spreads out in a broad evergreen tuft, like an um- 

 brella. This curious tree may be seen for miles, 

 standing there solitary and alone, like a giant among 

 pigmies, and, not inaptly, gives a cognomen to the 

 little island above which it towers. 



Away off to the north-east, miles and miles away, 

 the mountain peaks are seen, moveless and solemn, 

 like vast pillars sustaining the sky. Conspicuous and 

 tallest among them is the Ball-face Mountain. This 

 gigantic peak seems to be everywhere present. You 

 see it from Keeseville, seemingly between you and 

 the Saranacs. You see it from " The Forks," twelve 

 miles up the Au Sable, apparently in the same place 

 and at about the same distance. It is before you still, 

 when you cross the high table land, ten miles further 

 on. It looks down upon you from the Franklin Falls, 

 another ten miles further west. It is in plain sight 

 here, five and twenty miles west again. You see it as 

 you are floating on Tapper's Lake, still another thirty 

 miles west, and you rejoice that you have weathered 

 the giant, that seems to be watching you all the long 

 day. This lofty peak goes up from a range of moun- 

 tains, which lays between the sources of the Saranac 



