none of this forerunning haze, but the whole opaque white ocean gave a
start and swallowed a piece of mountain at a gulp. It was to flee these
poisonous fogs that I had left the seaboard, and climbed so high among
the mountains. And now, behold, here came the fog to besiege me in my
chosen altitudes, and yet came so beautifully that my first thought was
of welcome.

The sun had now gotten much higher, and through all the gaps of the
hills it cast long bars of gold across that white ocean. An eagle, or
some other very great bird of the mountain, came wheeling over the
nearer pinetops, and hung, poised and something sideways, as if to look
abroad on that unwonted desolation, spying, perhaps with terror, for the
eyries of her comrades. Then, with a long cry, she disappeared again
toward Lake County and the clearer air. At length it seemed to me as if
the flood were beginning to subside. The old landmarks, by whose
disappearance I had measured its advance, here a crag, there a brave
pine tree, now began, in the inverse order, to make their reappearance
into daylight. I judged all danger of the fog was over. This was not
Noah's flood; it was but a morning spring, and would now drift out
seaward whence it came. So, mightily relieved, and a good deal
exhilarated by the sight, I went into the house to light the fire.

I suppose it was nearly seven when I once more mounted the platform to
look abroad. The fog ocean had swelled up enormously since last I saw
it; and a few hundred feet below me, in the deep gap where the Toll
House stands and the road runs through into Lake County, it had already
topped the slope, and was pouring over and down the other side like
driving smoke. The wind had climbed along with it; and though I was
still in calm air, I could see the trees tossing below me, and their
long, strident sighing mounted to me where I stood.