CHOCORUA IN NOVEMBER. 
207 
Across the eastern valley, filled with its white¬ 
stemmed birches and poplars, rose a forbidding 
line of snowy cliffs. Of all the buttresses which 
prop the peak, this lofty ridge of nude rock is 
the most inaccessible and sullen. Now and then 
a bear is seen traversing its danger>.ms faces in 
search of berries, but man rarely st^ps upon it: 
ever-visible but repellent heights. 
Looking away from the sun, all the world was 
white or gray; looking towards it, deep violet 
tones predominated, while from between the 
hills many lakes flashed towards me the slant¬ 
ing, dazzling rays of the low-hanging sun. So 
dark was the south that I found it hard to real¬ 
ize that the hour was but one o’clock and the 
sky cloudless. In six weeks the sun will be 
even lower, the violet shadows deeper, and 
midwinter will rule the whole of the frozen 
land. 
When I opened my lunch, a house-fly came 
to share it with me. Omnipresent and much 
enduring insect, for once he was welcome, and 
I felt as though a companion sat with me. In 
the rock upon which I rested there was a little 
rift, filled with water upon which floated a fish¬ 
shaped cake of ice. This was my punch-bowl, 
and never thirst found sweeter, purer draught 
for its quenching, than came from that heaven- 
filled and frost-cooled cup. I wanted to bless 
