Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1856-08-16
A BATH AMONG THE WHITE NOUN
TAINS.

I
Next To the pleasure Of a trip to the White
Mountains, and in some respects superior--is a
well written description Of the experience =
Henry Ward Beecher--whom we reverence TOO
much to dub Rev-is having a time amunu The
White Mountans, aud we extract from his ac-
count of it, in the Independent, the following no.
iice Of bath he tonk after descending one day
| liom the chief summit -
Reaching the hotel in due season, tired and
swealy. bath must be had. We went toward
the Notch, and turning to the right at the first
Lille stream that let itself down from the noun
iaius, We sought the poos in which we knew
such streams kept their sweetest thoughts, ex-
pressing Them by trout. The only difficulty
was in The selection. This pool was deep,
rock-Iimmed, transparent, grasel-boilomed.-
I he next was leyel-edged and ck-boiiomed,
but received its wafer with such gush that il
whirled around the basin in a liquid dance Of
bubbles. The next one received a divided
sifeam, one part coming over a shelving rock
aud sheeting down in white, while the other
poviion i.ll into a hollow and murmsrine crew
ice, and cans surgling forth from halfdark
channel.
Half way down. the rock Nss smooth and
pleasant to she feet. J.. he ~psA psr was
enc gravel ah4 powdered ~ 81. -amraonly
called sand. I'se ~Itsss ls', .- a. 4 even
more beautifully than shey easo 8 for the
rock has been roupied stl sfoos.. . mat il
gave a channel lie the hngsi-mouljed lip Of
watef-sase AMI the moss. beginning below,
had crcpt up into the very throat Of the passage,
and lined il completely. giving 10 the clear wa.
ter green hue as it rushed through. whirling
itself into a plexus Of cords, or pulsaiing
braid Of waie:. This was my pool. Il wait
ed for me. How deliciously IT opened its food
to my coming. j, rushed up TO every pore,
and sheeied my skin with an aqueous covering,
prepared in the mountain waier-looms. All,
;he codness every drop was molten hail. Il
was the very brother Of ice Al a mere hint
Of winter il would change to ice again II the
crystal nook was such surprise Of delight TO
me, what must have been 10 il, that had per-
haps never been invaded, unless BY lip Of
moose, or by the ylhe and spotted form Of syl-
van trout The drops and bubbles ran up TO
me and broke about my neck, and ran laughing
away, frolieking over the mossy margin, and
could hear them laughing all the way dowa be-
low. Such monster had never, perhaps. tax
en- covert in the pure, pelucid bowl before
But this was the centre-pari Not less mem
orable was the fringe. The trees hung in the
air on either side, and stretched their green
leaves for a roof far above, The birch and al
der, with here and there a silver fir, in bush
form, edged the rocks on either side. As YOU
look up the stream there opened an ascending
avenue of cascades, dripping rocks bearded
with moss, crevices filled with grass or dwarled
shrubs, until The whole was swallowed up in
the leaves and trees far above. But if Won
turned down the stream, then through lane of
richest green stood the open sky, and lified up
against 1t. thousands of feet. Mnunt Willard,
rocky and rent, with but here and there rem
nani of evergreens, sharp and ragged. The
sun was behind it and poured against its farther
side his whole tide Of light, which Tapped over
as stream dashes over its bounds and spills
its waters beyond. So it stood up over against
this ocean of atmospheric gold, banked huge
and rude, against mos, resplendeni heaven
As stood donning my last articles of raj
ment, and wringing my over-wel hair, saw a
trout move very deliberately out from under a
rock by which | had lain, and walk quietly
across TO the other sida. As he entered the
crevice, smaller one lefi il and came as de-
murely across TO has rock Ii was evident that
the old people had sent them out 10 see if the
coast was clear, and'wheiher any damage had
been done. Probably it was thought that there
had been slide in the mountain, and that
huge icicle OF lump Of snow had plunged into
their pool and melted away there. If there
are pscatory philosophers below water half as
wise as those above, this would be very fair
theory of the disturbance to which their noun
tain homestead had been subjected As | bad
eaten of their salt of course respected the
laws of hospitality, and no deceptive fly of
mine shall ever tempt trout in brook which
begets pools so lovely, and in pools that yield
themselves with such delicious embrace to the
pleasures Of mountain BATH
GERRIr SMITH AND FREMoST- Gerrit Smith
stODned in This citv vpstardav nm HE xvav IN tha