VISIT TO THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Reading edition
[Extract from the Author's Journal.]
When we came near the base of the mountain, two beautiful and transparent lakes, surrounded with a romantic forest of evergreen, and other trees, added greatly to the interest of the scene. Between these lakes a mansion was reared for the public entertainment of those whom curiosity draws to the place. This house furnished pleasure boats, fishing apparatus, guides, &c., for the accommodation of parties of pleasure, and others who wished to spend a few hours amid these romantic and picturesque scenes of sublimity and grandeur, where nature in her wildest freaks had combined the gentle and lovely, which seems to soothe and calm the spirits with the awfully grand, the terribly majestic, and the wild and romantic, as if calculated at once to interest the curious, to please the merry, to add gloom to solitude, and fervor to devotion; and in a word, to fill the contemplative mind with the highest degree of wonder and admiration. Our road led directly between the two small lakes, through what is called the notch. The mountains on each hand reared their majestic piles almost perpendicular for many hundred feet.
While clouds hung lowering on their bosoms, And their tall summits high above The misty vapors stood in awful pride, And still serenely smiled amid clear skies, And all the splendor of the morning sun.
When we had passed between the lakes and walked a short distance, we left the road and took a footpath to the left hand, and commenced our ascent up the steep sides of the mountain. Our path for many hundred feet was very steep, and in many places almost perpendicular; but the rough fragments of rock afforded steps; and these, together with twigs and shrubs which we seized with our hands, enabled us to climb with some degree of safety as well as speed. When we had arrived at the distance of perhaps half a mile, the scene was truly awful. Huge fragments of rock were thrown together in inconceivable confusion, as if by some terrible convulsion of nature; recalling to mind a time long since passed, when
Earth with a tremendous groan, Did for a dying Jesus mourn.
Passing still onward on our airy way, the timber began to be of a different variety, suited to a colder climate, and fast diminishing in its size, until at length we were only surrounded with dwarf cedars, or spruce; and still higher up, even these ceased to vegetate, and a bleak, bald, and rocky summit still reared its dreary head a vast distance above us. At the point where vegetation ceased, we found a small lake several rods in circumference probably fed by the melting snows which lay upon the mountain most of the year.
Leaving this curiosity below us, we continued our ascent over rocky steeps, mostly covered with moss; and after a laborious journey of some hours we found ourselves on the highest pinnacle of Mt. Lafayette, while far beneath us we beheld the summits of many other mountains, clothed with evergreen; and beyond these on all sides lay a beautiful scenery of
Farms, and fields and meadows gay, While in the distance far away, The flocks in sportive groups assembled, Limpid lakes in sunbeams trembled, Huts with rural scenes surrounded, Mansions fair and bright abounded; While zephyrs sweet perfumed the air, From roses, pinks, and lilies fair; While far o'er eastern hills we view The briny ocean's distant blue, And mark its waves in distance dwindle, Till with the heavens they seem to mingle. When all at once the scenes around us Are veiled from view, and clouds surround us, And far beneath, and high above, Swift through the air the vapors move.
Although it was now in the sultry heat of summer, yet our vast elevation caused a coldness which seemed winterlike; and although dressed in winter clothing, we were soon so chilled as to shake at every limb. After offering our prayers and thanks to the Maker of heaven and earth, we again descended; and when we had come down about half way we were out of the cloud, and again enjoyed the pure air of the lower atmosphere, while the warm and gentle breezes of summer soon warmed and restored our benumbed limbs to their proper temperature. Inspired with sublimer and nobler thoughts of nature and of nature's God, we pursued our course a few miles on our way, and being weary we called at a humble dwelling, were kindly received, and after partaking of such simple refreshments as the place afforded, with appetites sharpened with fatigue, we retired to rest, and resigned the night to sweet repose.