New-York tribune., 1885-03-08
THE ACKNOWLEDGES.
SNOW.BOUND.


are not afraid Of bad roads often. maze in the
summer season; and II occurred to us one day shat
it would be pleasant adventure to take this trip
while the country was covered with two feet of
snow and the rough track hidden by a white and
weli-frozen foor To make it, you strike southeast
from Saranac Lake. charming and some
what open succession of hills and valleys, pass
through North Elba and around the southern end
of Lake Placid. turn to the northeast, down the
valley OF the West Branch of the Ansable River.
and at Ausable Forks, where the South and West
Branches of the stream unte you cross over to the
Saranac Valley and return by way of Franklin Falls
and Bloomngdale. You thus describe an irregular
quadrangle. with circuit Of about seventy-ive
miles, keeping the imposing peak of Whiteface
always on your left. This mountain. named from
the scar of an old landslide. is of the bodest
and most picturesque elevations in the whole
wilderness.-its outlines are so sharp and regular.
its masss impressive. and its height-abOut 1900
feet tells so effectively because all the smaller
hills around it stand back and leave it alone. But
the principal attraction of the trip is the passage
between Whiteface and Sentinel Mountains.
commonly called the Wilmington Notch. natural
fume about six miles in length. where the Ausable
tumbles through narrow gorge, and the road Is
led along shelf of rock with a thousand feet OF
wall overhanging it on one side and nSisy chasm
yawning on the other.
1t was a gray morning when our party set out and
we had no sooner reached the bare upland south of
the village whence one looks over the fragments
of destroyed forest toward a line of noble peaks
in which Ampersand and Rogers are the most con-
spicuous elevations than We felt the sting of a
rising wind and saw the distance filled with whirl-
ing snow. No one minds the weather. however, in
this country. and in the shelter of the
woods where the road wound through deep glens
and along shelving hillsdes. When we came ont
upon the edge of the broad, beautiful. mountain
trimmed basin in which Lake Placid lies. all the
higher SUBMITS were hidden IN the clouds Of white
powder blown from their snOw-aden trees and the
outlook was fast growing stormy. But before the
storm fairly broke reached the little tavern at
the head of the Notch where we were to rest and
dine.
In winter of course it is rare for a traveller to
ask hospitality in this remote place. and we had
been warned to tako our provisions with us. we
found good fire and welcome. but the establish
ment had been put out of commission, superhu0us
apartments were closed. and the cabinet organ and
the cooking stove had been transferred to the
dning.room. which seemed to serve nearly all the
purposes of the family. On the stove stood the
household clock. asked if it had been put there to
thaw. "No: but it was kind of handy to have it
there; rOulu see III, you huO"' iioh ehO u""i ""o
somehow it did not to keep 6rst-rate time"
True enough; it did not; but everything was very
Jolly and snug; and there was plenty of joking and
laughter while one laid the table, and the landlady
cooked our chops and Diana made coffee. and the
Lady Of the Lake in n sudden foray upon the
pantry discovered dish of baked beans which she
bore in triumph to the board. Ii the exterior
courses are symmetrical and substantial, beans
make frst-rate rubble for inside filing dare say
that the arrival OF slegh load of strangers in this
lonely house was novel enough to be an exciting
break in the monotony of the winter, and we were
nrped 10 come again, even though we had devoured
the beans At the Notch house a man told the Lady
of the Lake that his horses were rstrate but over
worked. "What have they to do at this season y
swell, drive them all day, and after that they
have to do chores
IL was both showing and blowing hard when we
took the road again. But the wind will be IN your
backs.D said our host MS we drove away. He was
right II was also in our faces and in beth ears
Ii came raging through the pass in spiras and often
as our path twisted and doubled among the bills we
never got away from the fierce wind except when
we plunged into the depths Of the forest. where
thick growths of pine. spruce and hemock shut MS
in on both sides and met over our heads How still
and solemn everything then became Tie snow
was no longer driven before an angry blast but fell
gently in featbery flakes. dottng the dark green
back ground and the jingle of the bells seemed like
ap intrusion upon the mysterious silence. We met
hardly apy travellers all day. One party whom
we passed in the woods in the afternoon made n
striking picture. team Of horses were drawing
heavy lum ,cr-sled consisting of two sets OF bob
runners connected only by tongue. The teamster
walked alongside. His freight was not lumber but
a pretty young woman. perched upon an improvsed
4. NJ horfa faAf
snow covering her wraps. and the rosiest of checks
and darkest of eyes shining out of her whitened
hood.
AsI am not emulating the gude-book shall not
linser over a detailed description of the Notch. At
the narrowest point. where the mountains are only
+, few hundred feet apart. Whiteface rises 1000
feet above the river. and spur of Sentinel
precipitous and bare. though not so high, seems
ouite as imposing The river runs in deep rocky
channel and makes several fails, the principal OF
which il said to he hundred feet high. From
the road which is here carried on shelf far above
the river. we saw only q superb frozen cataract,
with no glimpse of water above or below; but we
could hear the roar of the liberated stream rs il
brole ont of the ice at the foot of the fall. The
snow at the brink was deep and treaeherous
thatiwe would not venture near enough to look over
and ace the bottom. But the whole course OF the
Ausable through the pass was a SUCCESSION OF I'M
pressiys yspectacles. Nobody who knows this
babblng and lightminded river only in summer can
realize its behavior under the tremendous strain of
forty degrees below Confined between rocky
hanks. the huge blocks of ice fare tossed in chaotic
confusion ana arrested high in air; while through
cbasms here and there, blue caves hung with
white stalactites we see tue black rushing water.
six feet below. After it has left the pass the
Ausable becomes tractable and submits tc be reg
ulary frozen over Late in the day, when the light
was beginning to fade, and the snow had nearly
filed the tracks we missed our route by keeping to
tho high road when we ought to have left it. As a
consequences we were soon in deep drift, but We