The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-01-03

ma some rocky prominence that could
afford clear outlook. But it might bs
pretty conclusively argued that God did
not intend that the great, receding, cloud
covered mountains should be climbed,
from the fact that the eye has not the
capacity to take advantage of the eleya-
tion. 1t can exert all its power from
lower and easily accessible eminences.
Among the mountains about Pttsford
worth more to look at than to climb, the
first place must be given to Nickwackett
(give the sound of o short, and accent
the first syllablc) This mountain is a
little beyond the town line, in ChittendeD,
but is the boundary of valley mainly in
Pittsford. The popularity of its form is
that it rises from the river level with one
unbroken slope to its steep edge-like sum-
init. The slope is rather that Of wave
rolling up the beach, hollow with an
overhanging crest, than that of an ordina-
ry mountain Nature and man have
now for two or three generations been con-
tending for Nickwackett. The pasture
grounds cross the hill at q good distance
up the height, and wheat.felds crowd
themselves up towards the top, but there
is still unbroken forest on the summit
and over goodly number Of acres down
the slope too steep for the present race of
mountaineers. Long may it wave Nick
wackett is mountain and q Green noun.
tain. Its rocks and spruces vindicate for
it this claim; but it is home mountain.
and every inhabitant of the Pittsford ba.
sin feels that it is a neighbor 1t is the
weather-gage Of the valley. The BOYS
say " 1t is going to rain, the clouds are
settling on old Nickwackett" And win.
ter sends forward to Nckwackett the
premonitious of his coming the farmers
look ont after cold, rainy night in An.
tumn, and see his sides covered with
snow. Nor does Pittsford alone hold an
interest in this mountain it is seen from
almost any point of clear outlook IN the
tract stretching twenty miles southwark
with a breadth of ten miles. and is
waymark to the traveller all the way
along the creek. The tiremen in Rutland
have given its name to one of their en-.
glnes, and it belongs to them as much a.
to its nearer neighbors
Pine Hill divides Rutland into East
and West, aud lifts the entire Rutland
valley 90 Or 100 feet above that of Pitts.
ford. An ugly, sandy hill cat Center
Rutland, 1t becomes rough, broken, steep
pasture-ground and woodland as it
stretches northward to Sutherland Falls
but near Pittsiord its ridge line bends
eastward and after stretch of a mile. or
thereabout, in this direction. the noun.
tain character is lost and the ridge itself
depressed into the rich grazing lands for
which that part Of the town is famous.
The ridge OF this hill after the turn at
Sutherland Falls land the Falls, by the
way, are plunge of the creek over a
rocky spur which it thrusts out rearward)
seems like the back bone Of some huge
animal, and the pasture grounds contigu-
GUS seem the surface upon the ribs, while
the sleeper fanks below are covered with
wood. The beauty Of this hill is in the
patches of meadow, pasture, sugar.bush
and copse that cover the gentle upper
slope below the vertebral column. These
highlands are visible from almost every
part of Pittsford and along the Otter
Greek quite to the north of Pittsford.
For, instance, these grounds are before
the eye as distinct and beautiful pic
ture. to one standing on Chipmans Hill,
as are the meadows along the Weybridge
road
Pico, which used to be called Killing.
ton Peak, and was said to be "the top of
Vermont is visible from great part of
{ht afr two mtl& probably from the far.
thcst point in the foreground. This
peak is probably the most symmetrical in
outline Of all the Vermont mountain
points, but there are several which are
higher. From the west hills, specially
from Biddy's Knob, the three grand
peaks, Pico, Killington and Shrewsbury,
appear with the mountain chain which
binds them together, itself an elevation
which dwarfs all the hills of which We
have yet spoken. These three mountains,
the inhabitants of Rutland county claim,
afford the sublimest mountain scenery of
the state.
I The mountain range broken, wild, al
most inaccessible to the northeast beyond
Nickwackett, has never received name,
but is worthy of poets description. 1t
is so rich in ravines, spurs and convolu-
lutions that it is a continual study as
seen from Pittsford village. Indeed its
! conformation cannot be fully made out
without the aid of an overhanging cloud
to reflect the light into its recesses.
This sketch, which does not attempt to
exhaust the subject, will be closed by
, simply noticing few of the mountains
daily visible from Pittsford windows
mountains too distant to afford the pecu-
liar rich display of mountain conforma-
tion, but which are of interest as way
q marks and as affording outlines of un.
surpassed beauty. Tinmouth Mountain
looms up pyramid perhaps twenty miles
, south. Dorset Mountain with its marble
, looks like the roof of an immense cathe-
a dral; point beyond and higher than Ell
! ther, stretches up to catch the first light
3 Of the morning, which | suppose to be Mt
Equinox. \ citizen of Pittsford would
think it hardly fair to pass unnoticed
/. Bald Peak with its natural ice-house,
|. Long Hill and Carmel, with its smokes
from the shingle-maker's shanties, but the
h interest in these is local rather than gen.
a eral. G.. y. b.
:, San Francisco exhibits some singular
laoturas We nuote from n snoacb rnoent