258 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
she will, and almost when she will, and: to de- 
light in setting at naught the most careful 
assertions of the botanists. The time may 
come, perhaps, when one can pluck passion 
flowers off a glacier without surprise, so fearless 
are nature’s combinations. 
All the party had climbed Moosilauke before, 
and there had been a good deal of debate as to 
whether, for our present purpose, we should 
leave the mountain path far down, and strike 
through the forest for the base of the cascades, 
or whether we should ascend nearly to the 
summit and search downward for the upper- 
most falls. The latter counsel at length pre- 
vailed, and even the point of departure was 
fixed upon. There are on Moosilauke several 
springs of water, along its upper regions, — 
each kindly provided by some good Samaritan 
with sheets of birch bark, such as Samaria never 
saw, but such as the New Hampshire woods- 
man easily twists into a cup. At the highest 
of these springs — said popularly, but wrongly, 
to be the origin of the very brook in question 
—we left the carriage road, and struck boldly 
downwards into the unbroken woods. In two 
minutes we seemed wholly beyond reach of the 
steep height we were leaving behind us, so 
sharp was the descent. It seemed as irretrace- 
able as a plunge over Niagara, and all civilized 
