My First Summer 



The southern slopes are much more gradual 

 and accessible. Narrow slot-like gorges 

 extend across the summit at right angles, 

 which look like lanes, formed evidently by 

 the erosion of less resisting beds. They are 

 usually called " devil's slides/' though they 

 lie far above the region usually haunted 

 by the devil ; for though we read that he 

 once climbed an exceeding high mountain, 

 he cannot be much of a mountaineer, for 

 his tracks are seldom seen above the timber- 

 line. 



The broad gray summit is barren and 

 desolate-looking in general views, wasted 

 by ages of gnawing storms ; but looking 

 at the surface in detail, one finds it cov- 

 ered by thousands and millions of charm- 

 ing plants with leaves and flowers so small 

 they form no mass of color visible at a 

 distance of a few hundred yards. Beds of 

 azure daisies smile confidingly in moist hol- 

 lows, and along the banks of small rills, 

 with several species of eriogonum, silky- 



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