f a
precipice, and on one side was upheld by a foundation of logs, piled
one upon the other, while a narrow excavation in the mountain in the
opposite direction had made a passage of sufficient width for the
ordinary traveling of that day. But logs, excavation, and everything
that did not reach several feet above the earth lay alike buried
beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide enough to receive the
sleigh, denoted the route of the highway, and this was sunk nearly two
feet below the surrounding surface.

In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower,
there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing,
and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even
extended up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran
across the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but
the summit itself remained in the forest. There was glittering in the
atmosphere, as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles;
and the noble bay horses that drew the sleigh were covered, in many
parts, with a coat of hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was
seen to issue like smoke; and every object in the view, as well as
every arrangement of the travelers, denoted the depth of a winter in
the mountains.

The harness, which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the
glossy varnishing of the present day, was ornamented with enormous
plates and buckles of brass, that shone like gold in those transient
beams of the sun which found their way obliquely through the tops of
the trees. Huge saddles, studded with nails and fitted with cloth that
served as blankets to the shoulders of the cattle, supported four
high, square-topped turrets, through which the stout reins led from
the mouths of the horses to the hands of the driver, who was a negro
of apparently twenty years of age. His face, which Nature had colored
with a glistening black, was now mottled with the cold, and his large
shining eyes filled with tears; a tribute to its power, that the keen
frosts of those regions always extracted from one of his African
origin. Still, there was a smiling expression of good humor in his
happy countenance, that was created by the thoughts of home, and a
Christmas fireside, with its Christmas frolics....

A dark spot of a few acres in extent at the southern extremity of this
beautiful flat, and immediately under the feet of our travelers, alone
showed by its rippling surfa