Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-08-10

stance [ had only to follow water
course back to the house, rest there over
night, and next day return on my steps,
| follow the stream up to its head, skirt
around molass which lay in the water
shed, enter the first valley to tho left,
and follow the stream which lay in it
down to its junction with Black river,
where there was nut at which the party
would wait for me.
Granger scratched rough map with
his knife on piece of bark, and told me
that I could hear the falls on Black
River for several hours before [ reached
the hut. To him his directions seemed
as definite as SEQ up Broadway to
Twenty street, turn down Twenty
fourth street to the left till you come to
Eighth avenue, then walk up Eighth
avenue till you come to No. $685." I
thought, CT can't miss the way if I keep
in the valleys, and assuredly / shall not
try to climb these mountains" So /
turned my back on the guide and my
friends Hunt and Eldridge, expecting to
reioin them by night-fall next day.
L made rapid progress in the morning
after leaving the house, as the woods
were comparatively open, and about 10
o'clock, as [ passed the place where we
had parted, l recognized the piece of
bark on which Granger had scratched
an outline of the watercourses. All. if
[ had picked it up! But passed it and
continued up the valley. Hills and val
leys were covered with the immense ice
worn boulders which are strewn so thick
| ~ over parts of the region known as
tho 6 11,ooJc Tho coil - fo,.t;lo
as is shown by the vigorous growth of
the trees; but these boulders render it
impossible to pillow the land. and the
! forest is SO far from market that the
trees have never been cut for fuel, ex-
cept In the immediate vicinity of the iron
works. These great detached rocks give
the forest a savage character [ have
never seen elsewhere. Their great gray
| sides loom up from the underground,
characteristic OF severity and endurance.
The trunks and roots of the hemlocks
are forced by them into all sorts of fam
tastic shapes. Nature seems in a gro
tesque and somber mood, and it requires
but little imagination to people the for
est with quaint little elves or malicious
goblins. The very brook, stained black
red by the roots of the sumac, seems to
have lost the sparkling and Joyous char
acter of running water and to be Creep
ing In a silent and suspicious way among
the boulders. Nevertheless, these woods
have always seemed akin to me, and have
peculiar fascination which appears to
something deeper than the exulting spirit
which is called out by the gentler and
brighter aspects of nature
Three hours hard walking brought me
! to the ''Mash," as Granger called it, in
whose sluggish waters Sunday Brook
and several others have their source.
Part of the water which falls there finds
| its way into the Hudson. and part. by
| two widely different courses, into the st.
Lawrence, one stream, think, draining
into the river which comes out of ST.
Regis, and another flowing northeast
into Champlain. At all events, it is a
trlplex watershed, and [ felt that 1 was
standing on one Of the vertebre of the
earth. followed some distance round
the edge OF the swamp, as Granger had
directed, and, on coming to point where
there was an opening between the trees,
saw on the other side what [ supposed
was the head of the valley I was to de-
| scend. [ here committed the great
error of crossing the marsh, which, I'M
fortunately, [ was able to do without
difficulty. On reaching the gap I had
| noticed L found that it contained we'll
defined watercourse, and feeling now
sure that it was the one my friends had
traversed the day before, [ sat down to
rest. After finishing every crumb of my
somewhat scanty dinner, [ rose and adj
dressed myself vigorously to the task
OF descending the valley. After the first
few hundred yards [ found it impossible
to make more than very slow progress
In some places the entire valley was
covered with huge powders, SO that the
stream would disappear. These were
covered with treacherous slippery moss,
and 1t required the greatest care to avoid
dangerous falls in forcing passage over
them. The sides of the inclosing hills
were even more impossible. / was
young, and light, and active, and I'M
willing to turn back, believing, as I did,
that my friends had been through and
that l should soon find more open woods.
In one place l was nearly an hour in adj
vancing less than a mile, and about 5
o'clock it began to rain. Still I kept up
good heart and worked my way labor
iously along, sometimes making good
progress for few moments, and then
making wild detour through the un-
derbrush to avoid some obstacle. At 6
o'clock [ came upon an extern
sive swamp, which filled the entire val
ley. [ was rather taken back by this,
and wondered that Granger had not
spoken of it, but concluded that to the
hardy backwoodsman it seemed slight
obstruction hardly worth mentioning.
When, after infinite pains, I had skirted
it, found that it was caused by COM
pact mass of powders cemented with
hard clay lying across the valley and
forming natural dam, which seemed
almost as if built by some preadamite
masons. Below this found the valley
much more open, and I saw two deer. AS
I watched with envy the ease with which
the graceful creatures moved off, hardly
alarmed at such feeble creature as I, /
caught the sound of falling water. At