ON SOME CURIOUS FORMS OF FISHES. 
By RICHARD BLISS.* 
MOUNT TACOMA IN WASHINGTON TERRITORY, 
By BAILEY WILLIS.f 
The word “mountain” recalls to the minds of many Eastern 
people the outline of some part of our Alleghany range, or per¬ 
haps of some one elevation with which we have closer links. 
W hen a child I lived almost in the shadow of the grand old 
mountain. Storm King, the western side of the gate of the Hudson 
River Highlands. Although I have since ridden over much of 
the mountain region from Alabama to New York, the impression 
made then has never been effaced ; Storm King remains to me 
still the ideal type of our lovely and loveable mountain scenery. 
Its broad, round shoulders stoop with the weight of many hun¬ 
dred thousand years; its curving outlines* and the shading of its 
garb of rustling leaves, lend softness to the landscape, and its 
aspects harmonize in all seasons with the setting of cultivated 
fields and human associations. This is true of the hills and val¬ 
leys of Pennsylvania ; it is true of the wilder parts of North Caro¬ 
lina and Tennessee. A farmhouse always seems at home nestling 
among the sheltering arms of the friendly hills. But in the past 
two years I have put beside my Storm King another ideal; the 
great young mountain, upon whose jagged peaks my thoughts 
centre to-night. Mt. Tacoma, the type of the massive grandeur 
stamped upon nature in the far West. The two represent extreme 
age and youth among mountains. Storm King has watched the 
building of our continent and would mark as an event ofyesterday, 
% 
•Title of paper read before the Society on December 6, 1SS3. 
t Read before the Society on January 3d, 18S4. The accompanying Artotype of “ Mount 
Tacoma from the west ” was taken from a sketch made by the author. 
