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ON BALD
MOUNTAIN “FOUR inches
of snow at the Profile House:” such was the word brought to us at the breakfast
table, the driver of the “stage” having communicated the intelligence as he
passed the hotel an hour or two earlier. We were not surprised. It rained in
Franconia night before last, and yesterday, when the clouds now and then lifted
a little, the sides of the mountains were seen to be white. This morning
(October 7), although even the lower slopes were veiled, the day promised well,
and at the first minute I set out for the Notch. It was
evident almost immediately that at some time within the last forty-eight hours
there had been a great influx of migrating birds. Song sparrows, white-throated
sparrows, snowbirds, bluebirds, and myrtle warblers were in extraordinary
force. Soon I began to hear the wrennish calls of ruby-crowned kinglets, —
which have been very scarce hitherto, — and presently more than one was heard
rehearsing its pretty song. What with bluebird voices, song sparrows’ warblings
(no set tune, but “continuous melody”), the cackle of robins, and the croaking
of rusty blackbirds, the air was loud. To these travelers, as to me, the
weather seemed to be changing for the better, though the sun did not yet show
itself, and finding themselves in so delectable a valley, they were in
exuberant spirits. Just above
the Profile House farm the road took me into a flock of birds that proved to be
the better part of half a mile in length. The wayside hedges were literally in
a flutter, snowbirds being the most abundant, I think, with white-throats and
myrtle warblers not far behind. Hermit thrushes, winter wrens, chipping
sparrows, song sparrows, and ruby-crowns were continually in sight, and an
unseen purple finch was practicing niggardly, disconnected, vireo-like phrases,
as the manner of his kind is in the autumnal season. Then, when
the older forest was reached, there came an interval of silence, broken at last
by the distant, or distant-seeming, voice of a red-breasted nuthatch and the
cheerful notes of chickadees. Soon two hermits showed themselves, facing me on
a low perch, and lifting their tails solemnly in response to my chirping; and
not far away were a winter wren or two, and a flock of white-throats and
snowbirds. I had never seen the dear old road birdier, even in May, though of
course I had often seen the number of species very much larger. At the
height of land I came upon the first snow, a ragged fringe left on the shady
side of the way. I made a snowball, for the sake of doing it (or, as I said to
myself, suiting the boyish act with a boyish word, “for greens”), and decided
all at once not to go down into the Notch, but up to the top of Bald Mountain.
From that point, if the sky cleared, as I felt hopeful it would, there would be
sights worth remembering. The mountain
is only a little one, but it is steep enough — the upper half, at all events —
to give the eager pedestrian a puff for his money. For myself, I had time to
spare, and, fortunately or unfortunately, had been over the path too often to
be subject to the state of mind (I know it well) which we may characterize as
climbers’ impatience. Unless something unforeseen should happen, the summit
would wait for me. Halfway up, also, a flock of blue jays, five or six at
least, who were holding a long and mysterious confabulation close by the path,
afforded me a comfortable breathing spell. For a moment I suspected the
presence of an owl, against whom the rascals were plotting mischief; but their
voices were much of the time too soft, too intimate-sounding, too lacking in
belligerency. Some of the birds might even have been communing with themselves.
Their whole behavior had an air of preternatural gravity and cunning, and their
remarks, whatever the purport of them, were in the highest degree varied. One
fellow was a masterly performer upon the bones (jay scholars will understand
what I mean, and I should despair of explaining myself in a few words to any
one else), while another furnished me with a genuine surprise by whistling
again and again in the manner of a red-tailed hawk. Well, the
conspirators dispersed, the solitary climber pocketed his curiosity, and in a
few minutes longer his feet were at the top. The rocky cone of Lafayette was
still densely capped, but under the fringed edges of the cloud there was plenty
of snow in sight. All the upper slopes of Kinsman, Cannon, and Lafayette were
covered with it, except that the deciduous trees (broad patches of yellow)
stood bare. Apparently the snow had stuck only upon the evergreens, and the
effect at this distance was very striking, the white over the green producing a
beautiful gray. I could never have imagined it. The hotel and its cottages,
nestled between the mountains, all had white roofs, but the landscape as a
whole was anything but wintry. Everywhere below me the great forest still
showed an abundance of bright hues, — red, yellow, and russet, — a piece of
glorious pageantry, though many shades less brilliant than I had seen it two
days before. So I am
saying to myself when suddenly I look upward, and behold, the cap is lifted
from Lafayette, and the mountain-top is clear white, shining in the sunlight
against the blue sky; a vision, it seems; something not of this world; splendor
immaculate, unearthly, unspeakable. I feel like shouting, or tell myself that I
do; but for some reason I keep silence. Clouds still hang about the mountains,
their shapes altering from glory to glory with every minute. Now a band lies
clean across Lafayette, immediately below the cone, detaching the white mass
from everything underneath, and leaving it, as it were, floating in the air. A
sharp-shinned hawk sails past me, nuthatches call from the valley woods, a
snowbird perches on a dwarf spruce at my elbow, a red squirrel breaks into
sudden spluttering, and then, with hands uplifted, sits silent and motionless.
I mention these details, but they are nothing. What I really see and feel is
the world I am living in: the sunshine, the stillness, the temperate airs, the
bright encircling forest, in which my little hilltop is cradled, and the white
peak yonder in the sky. The snow lends it lightness, airiness, buoyancy. As I
said just now, it seems almost to float in the ether. I remained
with this beauty for an hour, divided at the last between the luminous, snowy
peak above me and the soft — ineffably soft — world of leafy tree-tops below.
Then, as I had done only day before yesterday, I bade the place good-by.
Probably I should not come this way again till next summer, at the soonest.
Good-by, old mountain. Good-by, old woods. No doubt you have many worthier
lovers, but let me be counted as one of the faithful. I was still on the cone, making my way downward, when a grouse drummed and in a minute or two repeated himself. The sound struck me as curiously wanting in resonance, as if the log were water-soaked (though I do not believe he was striking one), or his breast not fully inflated. Perhaps he was a young fellow, a new hand with the drumsticks, and so excusable. Certainly the difficulty lay not in the matter of distance, for between two of the performances I turned a sharp corner, effectively triangulating the bird, and it was impossible that he should be more than a few yards away. On all sides the little nuthatches were calling to each other in their quaint childish treble. I love to hear them, and the goldcrests also; but here, as on the heights above, the birds were less than the forest. I was in a susceptible mood, I suppose. The mere sight of the tall, straight trunks, with the lights and shadows on them, gave me a pleasure indescribable. Though the friend who had been my walking companion for a week past (and no man could wish a better one) is sure to read this column, I cannot refrain from saying that solitariness has its merciful alleviations. I was no longer tempted to babble, and the wise old trees took their turn at talking. If I could only repeat what they said! |
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