THE HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 45 



of heaven, too, come down and envelop the top of 

 the mountain, — how such a circumstance must have 

 impressed the old God-fearing Hebrews ! Moses knew 

 well how to surround the law with the pomp and 

 circumstance that would inspire the deepest awe and 

 reverence. 



But when the clouds came down and enveloped 

 us on Slide Mountain, the grandeur, the solemnity, 

 were gone in a twinkling; the portentous-looking 

 clouds proved to be nothing but base fog that wet 

 us and extinguished the world for us. How tame, 

 and prosy, and humdrum the scene instantly became ! 

 But when the fog lifted, and we looked from under 

 it as from under a just-raised lid, and the eye 

 plunged again like an escaped bird into those vast 

 gulfs of space that opened at our feet, the feeling of 

 grandeur and solemnity quickly came back. 



The first want we felt on the top of Slide, after 

 we had got some rest, was a want of water. Several 

 of us cast about, right and left, but no sign of water 

 was found. But water must be had, so we all 

 started off deliberately to hunt it up. We had not 

 gone many hundred yards before we chanced upon 

 an ice-cave beneath some rocks, — vast masses of ice, 

 with crystal pools of water near. This was good 

 luck, indeed, and put a new and brighter face on the 

 situation. 



Slide Mountain enjoys a distinction which no other 

 mountain in the State, so far as is known, does, — 

 it has a thrush peculiar to itself. This thrush was 

 discovered and described by Eugene P. Bicknell, of 



