A NIGHT ALONE ON CHOCORUA . 
73 
black abyss below the eastern cliffs. It is 
needless to say that I was interested in these 
phenomena. I was much more than interested ; 
and the fact that I was absolutely alone, in the 
dark, miles away from home, with a storm howl¬ 
ing around me, was brought clearly to my mind. 
The legend of Chocorua, the Indian for whom 
this mountain was named, of his curse upon the 
whites, and of his melancholy death near these 
eastern cliffs, rose, for some illogical reason, 
into my memory. 
The sounds in the air continued, and at one 
time made me wonder whether electric waves 
passing through the low-hanging clouds above 
me could produce them. There being no light 
accompanying the sounds, I dismissed this hy¬ 
pothesis as unsatisfactory. Once I thought that 
something was scratching and grinding down 
the side of a sloping ledge. Since rain began 
falling thick and fast at the same moment, I 
seized my lantern and retreated to the cave. 
When I gained the dizzy rock at the mouth 
of the cave, the heavens again spoke, and mist- 
forms swept past in front of me. The next 
moment I was at the bottom of the cave, won¬ 
dering whether a temperature of 60 °, which my 
thermometer recorded, justified wholly the goose- 
flesh that crept over me. 
My lantern cast a clear, steady light into all 
