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    brow of Saddle Mountain as the sun went down , and left me in the narrow valley where stands the town of Williamstown . In the morning I set off to ascend the mountain , which though it presents the appearance , at a distance , of a single height , yet consists of a heap of mountains rising one above the other . Out of the deep valleys arose here and there a curling wreath of this

    blue smoke through the calm bright air of the morning . A rou-gh pathway led up the mountain through the thick overhanging woods . No solitude is so imposing as that of these mountain forests . The fiercest rays of the sun hardly send their light through the dense canopy of leaves : the gigantic trunks and

    broad spreading branches tell you of the vigour and wildness of primeval nature ; the freshness of the virgin soil , on which the vegetation of thousands of years has lain untouched , conies to your senses with its wild odours : you hear nothing but the gush of a mountain rill , or a woodpecker tapping the trunk of an aged tree , or the solemn notes of the wood-thrush . The effect is

    overpowering . As you ascend the woods grow thicker , but the trees decrease in height : the oak , and maple , and beech , and walnut , give place to pines growing in so dense a mass , that a snake could hardly get through them . A high spur of the mountain toward the west presents a craggy rock clear of trees , and a wide view may be obtained in this direction ; from this eminence the body of the mountain opposite is seen towering up so steep and

    lofty , that it looks like an immense green curtain drawn over the heavens . Down the sides of this declivity are channels furrowed through the soil , and exposing the bare rock of the mountain to view . These were occasioned by a remarkable torrent that fell suddenly upon the mountain some years since , and which the inhabitants describe as the ' bursting of a cloud ! ' Westward

    the heights open and show a distant prospect : the Green and Cattskill mountains lift their lofty peaks on the far horizon ; near at hand the country is intersected by valleys , and the bases of the mountains are chequered with bright fields of verdure amid the black mantle of forest which covers the country . Williamstown , with the villages and hamlets around , appear under your feet , as if drawn upon a map .

    From Williamstown to the west the road passes through a deep valley , at first covered with woods , but after some miles these are succeeded by fields of rich cultivation . The mountains everywhere present a fresh and verdant appearance : their summits are black with forests ; sometimes their sides are cleared of wood for half the distance upward , leaving a dark crown

    above a broad belt of lively verdure ; but generally the forest is so predominant in the landscape , that the mountains resemble solid piles of vegetation . These mountain tops are like sponges sucking up the moist vapours of the air and gathering them into clouds . Were the forests extirpated , the copious rains of thia

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    American Sketch ** . 97

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    No . 93 . I

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/17/