The Notch, Mt. Graylock, Massachusetts.
December 15, 1889.
  Cloudy with brief intervals of sunshine & frequent snow-squalls.
We reached N. Adams yesterday at 1 p.m. and after 
making some purchases in the town drove to Lavan Wilbur's
in "the Notch". A fur dealer in N[orth] Adams told us that bears
are still found in the township of Monroe, Mass[achusetts] on the
Honsac M[ountain]s where a very fine specimen weighing 298 pounds
was sent in the flesh only a few days ago. The hunters
usually drive them into Vermont before killing them as there is
a bounty of $15.00 in the latter state. Three have been
killed this autumn, two of them just across the Vermont
border. None have been seen on Graylock for upwards of
forty years. There are a few wild cats on both ranges
but no deer on either. Deer have not existed in South Vermont
for nearly 50 years. Otters are very scarce but one was
seen in the river just below N[orth] Adams last week.
When Faxon & I started forth this morning we found
the ground covered with about five inches of damp snow.
The spruces above the house were nearly as solidly white as the ground
and the hardwood forests still higher up on the mountain
side pale pearl gray or bluish-white, this color probably
resulting from a combination of the warm gray & brown
tints of the twigs with their covering of snow which
encrusted them.
[margin]Black Bears & other Large Mammals[/margin]
  Starting directly up the steep hillside we soon reached
the belt of pasture spruces. They were fairly loaded with
snow which bent the more slender lateral branches nearly
or quite to the ground forming arches and bowers under
which the earth was nearly bare. It was a scene
of bewildering beauty, this evergreen forest crusted with
glistening white crystals. Even the most delicate grasses
were loaded down, forming fern-like traceries. As we