i«58 



NEW HxVMPSPIlRE. 



brook of this size to be modeled into more diversified or more delightful forms, or for a cas- 

 cade to descend over precipices more happily fitted to finish its beauty. 



The clifi's together with a level at their foot, furnished a considerable opening, surrounded by 

 the forest. The sunbeams penetrating through the trees, painted here a great variety of fine 

 images of light, and edged an equally numerous and diversified collection of shadows, both 

 dancing on the waters, and alternately silvering and obscuring their course. Purer water was 

 never seen. Exclusive of its murmurs, the world around us was solemn and silent. Every- 

 thing assumed the character of enchantment, and had I been educated in the Grecian mythol- 

 ogy, I should scarcely have been surprised to find an assemblage of Dryads, Naiads, and Oreads 

 sporting on the little plain below our feet. The purity of this water was discernible, not only 

 by its hmpid appearance and its taste, but from several other circumstances, lis course is 

 wholly over hard granite, and the rocks and stones in its bed and at its side, instead of being 

 covered with adventitious substances, were washed perfectly clean, and by their neat appear- 

 ance, added not a little to the beauty of the scenery. 



From this spot the mountain speedily began to open with increased majesty, and in several 

 instances rose to a perpendicular height of little less than a mile. The bosom of both ranges 

 was overspread in all the inferior regions, by a mixture of evergreens with trees whose leaves 

 are deciduous. The annual foliage had been already changed by the frost. Of the efiects of 

 this change it is perhaps impossible for an inhabitant of Great Britain, as I have been assured 

 by several foreigners, to form an adequate conception without visiting an American forest. 

 When I was a youth, I remarked, that Thomson had entirely omitted in liis Seasons, this fine 

 part of autumnal imagery. Upon inquiring of an English gentleman the probable cause of this 

 omission, he informed me, that no such scenery existed in Great Britain.* 



In this country it is often among the most splendid beauties of nature. All the leaves of 

 trees which are not evergreens, are by the first severe frost changed from their verdure towards 

 the perfection of that color which they are capable of ultimately assuming, through yellow, 

 orange, and red, to a pretty deep brown. As the frost aflbcts diflerent trees, and the different 

 leaves of the same tree in very different degrees, a vast multitude of tinctures are connnonly 

 found on those of a single tree, and always on those of a grove or forest. These colors also in 

 all their varieties are generally full, and in many instances are among the most exquisite which 

 are found in the regions of nature. Difierent sorts of trees are susceptible of diflerent degrees 

 of this beauty. 



Among them the maple is preeminently distinguished by the prodigious variety, the finished 

 beauty, and the intense lustre of its hues, varying through all the dyes, between a rich green 

 and the most perfect crimson, or more definitely, the red of the prismatic image. There is, 

 however, a sensible difl'erence in the beauty of this appearance of nature in different parts of the 

 country, even where the forest trees are the same. I have seen no tract, where its splendor 

 was so highly finished, as in the region which surrounds the little town of Lancaster for a dis- 

 tance of 30 miles. The colors are more varied, and more intense, and the numerous ever- 

 greens furnish in their deep hues, the best groundwork of the picture. 



I have remarked, that the annual fohage on these mountains had been already changed Ly the 

 frost. Of course the darkness of the evergreens was finely illumined by the brilliant yellow of 

 the birch, the beech, and the cherry, and the more brilliant orange and crimson of the maple. 

 The effect of this universal diffusion of gay and splendid light, was to render the prepondera- 

 ting deep green more solemn. The mind encircled by this scenery, irresistibly remembered 

 that the light was the li2;ht of decay, autumnal and melancholy. The dark, was the gloom of 

 evening, approximating to night. Over the whole, the azure of the sky cast a deep misty blue, 

 blending towards the summits every other hue, and predominating over all. 



As the eye ascended these steeps, the light decayed, and gradually ceased. On the inferior 

 summits rose crowns of conical firs and spruces. On the superior eminences, the trees growing 

 less and less, yielded to the chilling atmosphere, and marked the limit of forest vegetation. 

 Above, the surface was covered with a mass of shrubs terminating at a still higher elevation in 

 a shroud of dark-colored moss. As we passed onward through this singular valley, occasional 

 torrents formed by the rains, and dissolving snows at the close of winter, had left behind them 

 in many places perpetual monuments of their progress, in perpendicular, narrow, and irregular 



" All tliese various changes are noticeable in the forests 

 o'" Great Britain, narticilarly in Scotland, though in a far 



inferior degree. The hues of the changing woods are ksa 

 brilliant, and the contrasts less striking. 



