The herald., 1898-09-04
y DAyID SKAATJ foyrEk.'

Gus, being fully five miles in length
two or three in thickness, and twelve
or thirteen hundred feet in height
This enchanted mesa of ours, which is
called II Monumento,' on account OF
it's resemblance to a huge sarcophagus
stands, not upon the plain, but in the
midst of one Of the pellucid lakes OF
the Apennines. Its top seems fairly
level, is fringed with forest, and should
contain several thousands OF acres, but
whether inhabited or not, no man will
ever know, as it is absolutely impossi-
BILE to reach it's summit"
| Thought 1 to myself, "The noble
| count is trying to go me one better
and coming to this conclusion, offered
to bet him two thousand lire that,
within one week, I would climb to the
top of his mysterious mountain. He
Immediately accepted my bet, and
saw that he was positive OF having
what is called a "sure thing"
My arrangements were soon made; 1t
was only necessary to have certain
articles which We're necessary to my
undertaking. and this was easily done
in Florence.
Early upon the morning of Thursday
I set out on foot from Pratolino with
my guide. For several miles the roads
were good. but after passing over the
Scenario, we took a rugged path, which
led us to the west and north Of Vag-
liza, and up into the very heart OF the
Apennines. When we reached the
shores of the lake, which We did at
about five o'clock in the afternoon, 1t
seemed as If we had passed entirely
beyond the limits of human habita-
ton and come into region totally
unexplored and desolate.
The lake was a very pretty body of
water, and though eight or nine miles
in length, it seemed small pool, as 1t
lay there, deep down among the gigan-
tic backs of the mountains. A half
mile, or it may be, mile from the
shore, arose from the glass-like surface
of the water the mysterious and cube
like block Of stone, the island of rock
which I had come to scale. l calculat-
ed that it must be five or six miles in
length, though the surroundings made
it seem much less. 1t had a dark red
dish look, as of sandstone, and 1t went
up straight and sheer from the water
to height of twelve hundred feet and
more. Along it's whole crest was a
DldCk llHc VI lOlCoe, eeAiA eAiS "AA'iN
shape of it, and the deathlike stiffness
Of the great amphitheatre about me.
made seem most apt the name I'll
Monumental" which had been given to
1t.
We camped upon the shore that
night, and on Friday morning, at eight
o. o'clock my guide procuring me small
boat from some secret hiding-plac
left him upon the shore, and padded
myself across the water toward this
mesa encantada. The nearer 1 ap-
preached the more precipitous and un-
scalable appeared its sides. Yet l would
not, at that moment, have accepted
1900 lire and called it quits with the
count. AS neared the island, I found,
to my satisfaction, that at one point,
It's side was not so steep as l had sup
posed, and that the rock sloped up
ward from the water, at an angle of
about forty-five degrees, to a height of
something like 500 feet. Here was the
place for me to land. I fastened my
boat securely to the rocks. and at once
began to climb, and in about half an
hour found myself at the top of this
incline, at a perilous height above the
surface of the water. l had brought
with me, of course, the paraphernalia
which had been made for me by the
blacksmith of Florence; but 1 scorned
as yet to put the things to use, as
had by no means exhausted the re-
sources of my own strength and agil-
ity There was a fissure here and
there a slight jutting ledge now and
then. in the sandstone above me, and
l went to work and pulled myself up
from one point to another, with great
care and prodigious exertion, the re-
suit being that in an hour or so l had