Tenting Sketches [pp. 74-78]

1886.] Tentzng Sketches. 77
ing down over inaccessible mountain sides, jagged sides and irregular floor, perhaps the
you will see the great Clear Lake shining dungeon of some heathen inquisition. Away
far below." So we climbed upa steep, rugged, back in the dark, it stopped over a black
half-blind road, and traveled through a wild, opening, and a rock thrown in, after a long
almost inaccessible, country. Here we silence, was followed by the dull, hollow
watched for the track of the deer by the sound of its splashing into some sullen, mysmany oozy springs, and listened for every terious tide below.
bird note that echoes through the woods. On the opposite side of Castle Rock was
On the top of the mountain, where tall pines the icy cold spring which sent down the
and groups of young trees made protection mountain a long train of grasses and flowers.
from the sun and wind, a deserted deer camp The tall trees, standing a little apart, guardtold a pitiful story of many slaughtered inno- ed it from the sunlight, and the birds of the
cents. forest kept whirling continually into the open
We hailed the sweetness of the air, so far space, to bathe and flutter about the dear
above the smoke and dust of the valleys, lift- jewel of their delight-this unsullied, clear,
ed our arms joyfully to the dry, fragrant and faultless pearl of the woods.
wind floating under the pines, watching as Directly in the front of Castle Rock lay
we were carried through it for those fine in- the level tenting ground, shaded, but not obcomparai)le views of the white, misty lake, scured, by trees, and fit for the royal tent of
spread far below in its majestic setting of an encampingarmy, where a handful of men
rugged mountains. It was up here that we might defend it, being surrounded by its
found the resort of our imaginations, as if steep slopes merging into the general conNature herself had planned it after the most tour of the mountain.
romantic fancy of the nature worshiper. Here we placed the white dwelling of our
Many narrow canons led off from the moun- pilgrimage, and with the forest above and the
tain's crest, wandering down toward the val- forest below, breathed in from the piny punleys below. Over the ridge, and down one gent wind an overflowing measure of the
of these, ran the main toll road from the blessedness and beauty of outdoor life. It
west in to Bartlett Springs, which lies four is not in looking at such a place as this that
miles down a steep grade at the foot of the one sees the fountain of health and satisfacmountain. All about the top of the ridge tion; it is in staying there day after day, until
are many little bench formations, and alnost the measure of the forest hymns begins to
invariably by each bench, large or small, ap- beat about the inner thought; it is in climbing
pears a damp place green with waving grass, every day new paths, seeing new views, tastwhich shows the presence of flowing or unde- ing of new springs, discovering a tree rare
veloped springs. One of these bench for- in its locality, or a rare bird retreating in cau