52 THE MOUNTAINS 



ten feet away, sitting on the dead branch 

 of a young maple. 



This clearing itself is so beautiful and 

 fitting as to merit a brief description. It 

 was made years enough ago so that there 

 are no stumps. The ground is now cov- 

 ered with a maze of ferns (at least six 

 kinds), meadow-sweet, steeple-bush, and 

 goldenrod. Here and there, half buried 

 among the larger ferns, are bowlders, just 

 as nature dropped them ages ago in some 

 tremendous glacial movement. On three 

 sides the clearing is bounded by forest, 

 with all sorts of trees from the tremulous 

 poplar to the lordly spruce. Beyond the 

 forest, to the north, is the hill which the 

 natives have well named "Break-Neck 

 Hill"; and over the western shoulder of 

 this hill there is visible what I surmise 

 to be a portion of Dalton Mountain. 

 Toward the south, where the clearing is 

 not forest bounded, one notices the rise 

 which is finally to become "Sugar Hill" 

 — as picturesque a spot as there is on 



