14 A NATURE WOOING. 



Below Harriman the railway runs southwesterly, 

 following the valley of the Tennessee River for 70 

 miles to Chattanooga. On the right for this entire 

 distance that grand escarpment of the Cumberland 

 Mountains, known as Walden Ridge, rises precipi- 

 tously a thousand feet or more in one unbroken 

 line. To a person coming from the level plains of 

 Central Indiana, how high, how grand seems its sum- 

 mit, gleaming in the bright spring sunshine ! In a 

 level country 'tis hard at times for the naturalist to 

 bring his thoughts above the level of the sward. But 

 with hills about- gray lichen covered cliffs of lime- 

 stone or sandstone to feast the eyes upon with 

 waters babbling o'er their stony bed or falling in 

 sheet-like form from the ledges above one is in- 

 spired with new thoughts and enstrengthened with 

 new ambitions. The hills lift up the human soul 

 just in proportion as they lift their pinnacles toward 

 the skies. No man from a land of level sward e'er 

 saw for the first time a mountain peak pierce the 

 clouds without being bettered by the sight. New 

 thoughts, new hopes, new resolves are engendered 

 within him by this glimpse of a portion of his mother 

 earth rising so far above him. Heretofore he has 

 trodden her easily beneath his feet has felt himself 

 master of her domain because he has been above her. 

 Now he sees her towering in inaccessible cliffs far be- 

 yond his reach. A feeling of her greatness begins, 

 for the first time, perchance, to force itself upon 



