than a barn, in one end of which an attempt has been made
to make a comfortable shelter for the human family. Here the real work
of the day began, although we had already come one hundred and four
miles by train and six by teams. No enterprising railroad man has set
his seal upon this region and we were forced to pursue the journey by
means of the conveyances which nature long ago--(how long, thank
fortune, we are not obliged to tell)--at our disposal. But faint heart
ne'er climbed a high mountain and with the aid of stout walking-sticks
we easily climbed the path which led up under sighing spruces and
stunted birch, filled with a fine exhilaration.

On each side and under foot was a profusion of wild flowers. Not June
flowers, but those found with us in May, so backward was the season at
that altitude. The red and white trillium, the sarsaparilla, Solomon's
seal, "moose-missy" and black-berry bushes, and, farther up, the
blue-berry bushes, all hung full of blossoms, a small Alpine flower of
seven white petals excited much curious comment, for in spite of its
resemblance to the wind-flower, no one seemed able to classify it.

Suddenly some six hundred feet below the summit of Cardigan we came out
from the stunted under-growth and found ourselves traversing the smooth
granite mass which constitutes the entire mountain top. The rock is full
of minute particles of mica, which glitter and flash in the sun like
"gems of purest ray serene." A brisk wind was blowing and the rarefied
air infused us with new strength to make the remaining ascent.

Some distance from each other, half way up the rounded cone, lie several
huge boulders poised in the bed of what was once a glacial drift. They
are of entirely different character from the rock on Cardigan and
without doubt came from much farther north. Whence, and when? The course
of the drift is also very plainly marked from northeast to southwest.
From the character of the rock there is reason to believe that when God
said, "Let the dry land appear," Mount Cardigan was the first to show
his head and came from the very bowels of the earth. Hitchcock's
"Geology of New Hampshire" states that these White Mountains appeared
above the face of the waters as islands at a very early period of the
world's history. "It would not be surprising," he says, "if this
archipelago covered as much area as New Hampshire and Vermont combined."
If these hoary old mountains could tell us their history si