For an hour or so I followed the valley in its many windings, but,
failing to see any dwelling-place, I ascended a hill to get a view of
the surrounding country. The prospect which disclosed itself when I had
got a couple of hundred feet above the surrounding level, appeared
unfamiliar. The hills among which I had been wandering were now behind
me; before me spread a wide rolling country, beyond which rose a
mountain range resembling in the distance blue banked-up clouds with
summits and peaks of pearly whiteness. Looking on this scene I could
hardly refrain from shouting with joy, so glad did the sunlit expanse of
earth, and the pure exhilarating mountain breeze, make me feel. The
season was late summer--that was plain to see; the ground was moist, as
if from recent showers, and the earth everywhere had that intense living
greenness with which it reclothes itself when the greater heats are
over; but the foliage of the woods was already beginning to be touched
here and there with the yellow and russet hues of decay. A more tranquil
and soul-satisfying scene could not be imagined: the dear old mother
earth was looking her very best; while the shifting golden sunlight, the
mysterious haze in the distance, and the glint of a wide stream not very
far off, seemed to spiritualize her "happy autumn fields," and bring
them into a closer kinship with the blue over-arching sky. There was one
large house or mansion in sight, but no town, nor even a hamlet, and not
one solitary spire. In vain I scanned the horizon, waiting impatiently
to see the distant puff of white steam from some passing engine. This
troubled me not a little, for I had no idea that I had drifted so far
from civilization in my search for specimens, or whatever it was that
brought me to this pretty, primitive wilderness. Not quite a wilderness,
however, for there, within a short hour's walk of the hill, stood the
one great stone mansion, close to the river I had mentioned. There were
also horses and cows in sight, and a number of scattered sheep were