42 KIVERBY 



upon precipice, up which and over which we made 

 our way slowly and with great labor, now pulling 

 ourselves up by our hands, then cautiously finding 

 niches for our feet and zigzagging right and left from 

 shelf to shelf. This northern side of the mountain 

 was thickly covered with moss and lichens, like the 

 north side of a tree. This made it soft to the foot, 

 and broke many a slip and fall. Everywhere a 

 stunted growth of yellow birch, mountain-ash, and 

 spruce and fir opposed our progress. The ascent at 

 such an angle with a roll of blankets on your back 

 is not unlike climbing a tree : every limb resists your 

 progress and pushes you back; so that when we at 

 last reached the summit, after twelve or fifteen hun- 

 dred feet of this sort of work, the fight was about 

 all out of the best of us. It was then nearly two 

 o'clock, so that we had been about seven hours in 

 coming seven miles. 



Here on the top of the mountain we overtook 

 spring, which had been gone from the valley nearly 

 a month. Ked clover was opening in the valley be- 

 low, and wild strawberries just ripening; on the 

 summit the yellow birch was just hanging out its 

 catkins, and the claytonia, or spring- beauty, was in 

 bloom. The leaf- buds of the trees were just burst- 

 ing, making a faint mist of green, which, as the eye 

 swept downward, gradually deepened until it be- 

 came a dense, massive cloud in the valleys. At the 

 foot of the mountain the clintonia, or northern green 

 lily, and the low shad-bush were showing their ber- 

 ries, but long before the top was reached they were 



