xt7ncj87hq2b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ncj87hq2b/data/mets.xml  187274  books b92-118-28575320v1 English D. Appleton, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. United States Description and travel. United States Pictorial works. Qubebec (Province) Description and travel. Qubebec (Province) Pictorial works.Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878. Bunce, Oliver Bell, 1828-1890. Picturesque America, or, The Land we live in  : a delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cadnons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country / with illustrations on steel and wood, by eminent American artists ; edited by William Cullen Bryant. (vol. 1) text Picturesque America, or, The Land we live in  : a delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cadnons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country / with illustrations on steel and wood, by eminent American artists ; edited by William Cullen Bryant. (vol. 1) 1872 2002 true xt7ncj87hq2b section xt7ncj87hq2b 






































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PICTURESQUE AMERICA;


                    OR,



        THE LAND WE LIVE IN.



   A DELINEATION BY PEN AND PENCIL


                     OF


THE MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, LAKES, FORESTS, WATER-FALLS, SHORES,
   CANONS, VALLEYS, CITIES, AND OTHER PICTURESQUE
            FEATURES OF OUR COUNTRY.



"Iith luottationo Ott oted And eta 0d, bm Eminet 'Imania Arooto.



       EDITED BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.



                VOL. I.



                NEW YORK:
      D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
             549  55I BROADWAY.

 




































  ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872,

               By D. APPLETON  CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

 



                                      PREFACE.



  T is the design of the publication entitled " PICTURESQUE AMERICA " to present full descriptions and
     elaborate pictorial delineations of the scenery characteristic of all the different parts of our country.
The wealth of material for this purpose is almost boundless.
     It will be admitted that our country abounds with scenery new to the artist's pencil, of a varied char-
acter, whether beautiful or grand, or formed of those sharper but no less striking combinations of outline
which belong to neither of these classes. In the Old World every spot remarkable in these respects has
been visited by the artist; studied and sketched again and again; observed in sunshine and in the shade
of clouds, and regarded from every point of view that may give variety to the delineation. Both those
who see in a landscape only what it shows to common eyes, and those whose imagination, like that of
Turner, transfigures and glorifies whatever they look at, have made of these places, for the most part, all
that could be made of them, until a desire is felt for the elements of natural beauty in new combinations,
and for regions not yet rifled of all that they can yield to the pencil. Art sighs to carry her conquests
into new realms. On our continent, and within the limits of our Republic, she finds them-primitive
forests, in which the huge trunks of a past generation of trees lie mouldering in the shade of their aged
descendants; mountains and valleys, gorges and rivers, and tracts of sea-coast, which the foot of the
artist has never trod; and glens murmuring with water-falls which his ear has never heard. Thousands
of charming nooks are waiting to yield their beauty to the pencil of the first comer. On the two great
oceans which border our league of States, and in the vast space between them, we find a variety of sce-
nery which no other single country can boast of. In other parts of the globe are a few mountains which
attain a greater altitude than any within our limits, but the mere difference in height adds nothing to the
impression made on the spectator. Among our White Mountains, our Catskills, our Alleghanies, our
Rocky Mountains; and our Sierra Nevada, we have some of the wildest and most beautiful scenery in the
world. On our majestic rivers-among the largest on either continent-and on our lakes-the largest
and noblest in the world-the country often wears an aspect in which beauty is blended with majesty;
and on our prairies and savannas the spectator, surprised at the vastness of their features, finds himself,
notwithstanding the soft and gentle sweep of their outlines, overpowered with a sense of sublimity.
     By means of the overland communications lately opened between the Atlantic coast and that of the
Pacific, we have now easy access to scenery of a most remarkable character. For those who would see
Nature in her grandest forms of snow-clad mountain, deep valley, rocky pinnacle, precipice, and chasm,
there is no longer any occasion to cross the ocean. A rapid journey by railway over the plains that
stretch westward from the Mississippi, brings the tourist into a region of the Rocky Mountains rivalling
Switzerland in its scenery of rock piled on rock, up to the region of the clouds. But Switzerland has no
such groves on its mountain-sides, nor has even Libanus, with its ancient cedars, as those which raise the
astonishment of the visitor to that Western region-trees of such prodigious height and enormous dimen-
mensions that, to attain their present bulk, we might imagine them to have sprouted from the seed at the
time of the Trojan War. Another feature of that region is so remarkable as to have enriched our lan-
guage with a new word; and cat on, as the Spaniards write it, or canyon, as it is often spelled by our people,

 


PREFA CE.



signifies one of those chasms between perpendicular walls ol rock-chasms of fearful depth and of length
like that of a river, reporting of some mighty convulsion of Nature in ages that have left no record save
in these displacements of the crust of our globe. Nor should we overlook in this enumeration the scenery
of the desert, as it is seen in all its dreariness, not without offering subjects for the pencil, in those tracts
of our Western possessions where rains never fall nor springs gush to moisten the soil.
    When we speak of the scenery in our country rivalling that of Switzerland, we do not mean to
imply that it has not a distinct and peculiar aspect. In mountain-scenery Nature does not repeat her-
self any more than in the human countenance. The traveller among the Pyrenees sees at a glance that
he is not among the Alps. There is something in the forms and tints by which he is surrounded, and
even in the lights which fall upon them, that impresses him with the idea of an essential difference. So,
when he journeys among the steeps, and gorges, and fountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, he well
perceives that he is neither among the Alps nor the Pyrenees. The precipices wear outlines of their
own, the soil has its peculiar vegetation, the clouds and the sky have their distinct physiognomy.
    Here, then, is a field for the artist almost without limits. It is no wonder that, with such an abun-
dance and diversity of subjects for the pencil of the landscape-painter, his art should flourish in our
country, and that some of those by whom it is practised should have made themselves illustrious by their
works. Amid this great variety, however, and in a territory of such great extent, parts of which are
but newly explored and other parts yet unvisited by sketchers, it is certain that no country has within its
borders so many beautiful spots altogether unfamiliar to its own people. It is quite safe to assert that a
book of American scenery, like " PICTURESQUE AMERICA," will lay before American readers more
scenes entirely new to them than a similar book on Europe. Paintings, engravings, and photographs,
have made us all, even those who have never seen them, well acquainted with the banks of the Hudson,
with Niagara, and with the wonderful valley of the Yosemite; but there are innumerable places which
lie out of the usual path of our artists and tourists; and many strange, picturesque, and charming scenes,
sought out in these secluded spots, will, for the first time, become familiar to the general public through
these pages. It is the purpose of the work to illustrate with greater fulness, and with superior excel-
lence, so far as art is concerned, the places which attract curiosity by their interesting associations, and,
at the same time, to challenge the admiration of the public for many of the glorious scenes which lie in
the by-ways of travel.
    Nor is the plan of the work confined to the natural beauties of our country. It includes, moreover,
the various aspects impressed on it by civilization. It will give views of our cities and towns, character-
istic scenes of human activity on our rivers and lakes, and will often associate, with the places delineated,
whatever of American life and habits may possess the picturesque element.
    The descriptions which form the letter-press of this work are necessarily from different pens, since
they were to be obtained from those who had personally some knowledge of the places described. As
for the illustrations, they were made in almost every instance by artists sent by the publishers for the
purpose. Photographs, however accurate, lack the spirit and personal quality which the accomplished
painter or draughtsman infuses into his work. The engravings here presented may with reason claim
for " PICTURESQUE AMERICA," in addition to the fidelity of the delineations, that they possess spirit,
animation, and beauty, which give to the work of the artist a value higher than could be derived from
mere topographical accuracy.
    The letter-press has passed under my revision, but to the zeal and diligence of Mr. Oliver B. Bunce,
who has made the getting up of this work a labor of love, the credit of obtaining the descriptions from
different quarters is due. To his well-instructed taste also the public will owe what constitutes the prin-
cipal value of the work, the selection of subjects, the employment of skilful artists, and the general ar-
rangement of the contents.
                                                                     WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT



ivs



 




CONTENTS, VOLUME FIRST.



            SUBJECT.                     AUTHOR.

ON THE COAST OF MAINE.                 0. B. BUxCE.

ST. JOHN'S AND OCKLAWAHA RIVERS,) T. B THORPE.
    FLORIDA.

UP AND DOWN THE COLUMBIA.              L. J. G. RUNKLE.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND THE TENNES- )
             SEE.                      0. B. BUNCE.
    SEE.

RICHMOND, SCENIC AND HISTORIC.         J. R. THOMPSON.

NATURAL BRIDGE, VIRGINIA.              JOHN ESTEN COOKE.

DELAWARE WATER-GAP.                    J. E. RINGWALT.

MAUCH CHUNK.                           0. B. BUNCE.

ON THE SAVANNAH.                       W. V. THOMPSON.

THE FRENCH BROAD.                      F. G. DE FONTAINE.

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.                   SUSAN N. CARTER-

NEVERSINK HIGHLANDS.                   0. B. BUNCE.

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA.                ROBERT CARTER.

CHARLESTON AND ITS SUBURBS.            0. B. BUNCE.

WEYER'S CAVE, VIRGINIA.                SALLIE A. BROCK.

SCENES ON THE BRANDYWINE.              0. B. BUNCE.

CUMBERLAND GAP.                        F. G. DE FONTAINE.

WVATKINS GLEN.                         0. B. BUNCE.

SCENES IN EASTERN LONG ISLAND.         0. B. BUNCE.

TIlE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.                T. B. THORPE.

MACKINAC.                              CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON.

OUR GREAT NATIONAL PARK.               0. B. BuNCE.



   ARTIST.

Harry Fenn.


Harry Fenn.


R. Swain Gifford.


Harry Fenn.


Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

Granville Perkins.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

Granville Perkins.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fens.

Harry Fenn.

Granville Perkins.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Fenn.

.1 Afred R. U aud.

7. D. Woodward.

/a wry venn.



VAGE



17

31



52



70

82

89

109

115

132

150

173

183

198

212

220

232

238

248

262

279

292.

 



CONTENTS, VOLUME FIRST



        SUBJECT.

HARPER'S FERRY.

SCENES IN VIRGINIA.

NEWPORT.

WEST VIRGINIA.

LAKE SUPERIOR.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

N IAGARA.

TRENTON FALLS.

THE YOSEMITE FALLS.

PROVIDENCE AND VICINITY.

SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE ERIE.

ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.



    AUTHOR.

J. C. CARPENTER.

G. W. BAGBY.

1. M. CLARKE.

D. H. STROTHER.

CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON.

R. E. GARCZYNSKI.

R. E. GARCZYNSKI.

R. E. GARCZYNSKI.

JAMES D. SMILLIE.

T. M. CLARKE.

CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON.

R. F. GARCZYNSKI.



    ARTIST.

Granville Perkins.

W. L. Sheppard.

C. Griswold, and others.

W. L. Sheppard.

Williant Hart.

R. Swain Gijord.

Harry Fenn.

Harry Femna.

7ames D. Smillie.

W. H. Gibson.

7. D. Woodward.

R. Swain Gford.



vi



PACE

317

337

358

377

393

412

432

452

465

496

510

550



 




LIST OF ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL.




                  V'OLUME  FIRST.



            SUBJFCT

NIAGARA.

CASCADE IN VIRGINIA.

ON THE COAST OF FLORIDA.

.MOUNT DESERT, COAST OF MAINE.

MOUNT HOOD, FROM COLUMBIA RIVER.

RICHMOND, FROM THE JAMES.

DELAWARE WATER-GAP.

SMOKY MOUNTAINS, EASTERN TENNESSEE.

MOUNT WASHINGTON ROAD.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE NEVERSINK.

CUMBERLAND GAP.

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.

UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.

HARPER'S FERRY, BY MOONLIGHT.

THE CHICKAHOMINY.

BAPTISM BAY, LAKE. SUPERIOR.

MOUNT SHASTA.

MIRROR LAKE, YOSEMITE VALLEY.

CITY OF PROVIDENCE.



    ARTIST.

HARRY FENN.

HARRY FENN.

HARRY FENN.

HARRY FENN.

R. SWAIN GIFFORD.

HARRY FENN.

GRANVILLE PERKINS.

HOMER MARTIN.

HARRY FENN.

GRANVILLE PERKINS.

HARRY FENN.

ALFRED R. WAUD.

THOMAS MORAN.

GRANVILLE PERKINS.

W. L. SHEPPARD.

WILLIAM HART.

JAMES D. SMILLIE.

HARRY FENN.

A. C. WARREN.



ENGRAVER

S. I Hunt.

R. Hinshelwood.

R. Hinshelwood.

R. Hinshelwood.

R. Hinshelwood.

R. Hinshtlwood.

R. Hinsheiwood.

R. Hinshelwcod.

S. V. Hunt.

W. Wellstood.

S. V. Hunt.

D. G. Thomipson.

S. V. Hvnt.

R. Hinshelwood.

W. Wellstood.

R. Hinshelwooi.

F. P. Brandard.

S. V Hunt.

R. Hinshelivood.



     PACE.

Frontispiece.

Title-page.


       17


       49

       73

       91

       132

       151

       176

       233

       265

       597

       328

       357

       393

       424

       465

       496

 




LIST OF ENGRA VINGS ON STEEL.



            SUBJECT.

INDIAN ROCK, NARRAGANSETT.

CITY OF BUFFALO.

CITY OF CLEVELAND.

CITY OF DETROIT.

THE GOLDEN GATE.



    ARTIST.

A. S. HAZELTINE.

A. C. WARREN.

A. C. WARREN.

A. C. WARREN.

JAMES D. SMILLIE.



viii



ENGRAVER.

S. Ve Hunt.

W. Wellstod.

R. Hinsheiwood.

R. Hinshelwood.

E. P. Brandard.



PAGE.

509

520

529

545

560



 

























N '








N
x

\





     i-
     i \-  
     XE

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This page in the original text is blank.


 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



Castle Head, Mount Desert.



             ON THE COAST OF MAINE.

                      WYITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRY FENN.

T  HE island of Mount Desert, on the coast of Maine, unites a striking group of pictu-
    resque features. It is surrounded by seas, crowned with mountains, and embosomed
with lakes. Its shores are bold and rocky cliffs, upon which the breakers for countless cen-
turies have wrought their ceaseless attrition. It affords the only instance along our Atlantic
coast where mountains stand in close neighborhood to the sea; here in one picture are

 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



beetling cliffs with the roar of restless breakers, far stretches of bay dotted with green islands,
placid mountain-lakes mirroring the mountain-precipices that tower above them, rugged
gorges clothed with primitive forests, and sheltered coves where the sea-waves ripple on the
shelly beach. Upon the shores are masses of cyclopean rocks heaped one upon another
in titanic disorder, and strange caverns of marvellous beauty; on the mountains are
frightful precipices, wonderful prospects of far-extending sea, and mazes of land and water,
and magnificent forests of fir and spruce. It is a union of all these supreme fascinations
of scenery, such as Nature, munificent as she is, rarely affords.
    Mount Desert is situated one hundred and ten miles east of Portland, in Frenchman's
Bay, which stretches on the eastern and western sides of the island in a wide expanse, but
narrows at the upper or northern end, where a bridge establishes permanent connection with
the main-land. The greatest length of the island is fourteen miles, and its extreme width
eight, the area being a hundred square miles. Nearly midway it is pierced by an inlet of the
sea known as Somes's Sound, which is seven miles in length. It includes three townships,
Tremont, Mount Desert, and Eden, and possesses several harbors, the best known of which
are Southwest, Northeast, and Bar Harbor. The latter is on the easterni shore, opposite the
Porcupine Islands, and derives its name from a sandy bar, visible only at low water, which
connects Mount Desert with the largest and northernmost of the Porcupine group. The
village at this harbor is known by the name of East Eden, and here tourists and summer
visitors principally abide. The mountains are upon the southern half of the island, and lie
in seven ridges, running nearly north and south.  There are thirteen distinct peaks, the
highest of which is known as Green Mountain; and the next, which is separated from
Green Mountain by a deep, narrow gorge, is called Newport. The western sides of the
range slope gradually upward to the summits, but on the east all of them descend by
steep precipices, four of them into lakes and one into Somes's Sound.
    The best view of the mountains is from the sea. The steamer from Portland, which
lands at Bar Harbor twice a week, approaches the island at noonday, when the landscape.
under the direct rays of the sun, possesses the least charm. But no other situation affords
so fine a command of the range, although, from this view, the rocks and cliffs of the shore,
lying under the shadows of the mountains, appear to have but little magnitude or picturesque
value. If it so chance, as it did with the writer, that delays bring the steamer along the coast
when the sun is sinking behind the hills, a picture of singular beauty is presented. The
mountains then lift in gloomy grandeur against the light of the western sky, and, with the
movement of the steamer, break every moment into new combinations of rare beauty. Now
they lie massed, one against another, in long, undulating lines, now open into distinct groups;
now Green Mountain fronts the sea with all its stem majesty, now Newport rises apparently
from the very water's edge in one abrupt cliff a thousand feet in height. It is a dissolving
view that for an hour or more presents a superb succession of scenic effects, which the
spectator watches with entrancing interest, until he discovers the steamer gliding by green



2

 


ON TIHE COAST OF MAINE.3



      islands and amid fleets of gayly-bannered
      yachts on its approach to the shore. The
      village of East Eden, while possessing a
      charming lookout over the bay, is without
      one feature of beauty.  It is built upon a
      treeless plain, and consists for the most part
      of a group of small white houses, rapidly
      extemporized  for the accommodation of
      summer boarders.    Every structure, with
      the exception of a few cottages erected by
      wealthy gentlemen of Boston, stands with-
      out trees, garden, or other pleasant sur-
      roundings.  The place is as conspicuously
      inexact in its cognomen as the island it-
      self is; one wonders whether the notion
      of naming places by their contraries is a
      legitimate Down-East institution.  In re-
d
E    gard to the name of the island, an attempt
it   is made to escape the inconsistency of the
      appellation by shifting the accent from the
4     first to the last syllable. The primary mean-
      ing of the designation, however, requires the
0    accentuation on the first syllable.  It was
      named by the French, who were the dis-
      coverers of this coast, " Mont Desert," as
      expressive of the wild and savage aspects
      of the mountains and cliffs that front the
      sea.
          Two purposes of special interest fill
      the mind of the visitor as soon as he
      finds himself satisfactorily domiciled at East
      Eden.   One is, to explore the long series
      of rocks and cliffs on the shore; the oth-
      er, to ascend Green Mountain, and enjoy
      the superb view from its " thunder-smitten
      brow." These respects to the scenery of the
      island having been paid, his subsequent pur-
      pose is likely to be fishing and boating.
      He will be anxious to try his hand at the



3

 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



splendid trout with which the lakes are said to abound, and to go far down the bay
for catches of cod and haddock, which here are of large dimensions and in great abun-
dance.  The bays, inlets, and sounds of the coast of Maine afford superb resources for
the yachtman. The coast seems to have crumbled off from the main-land in innumer-
able islands, large and small, so that there is a vast area of inland-sea navigation, which,
with infinite variety of scene, gives ample space for boating. A yachting-party might
spend a summer delightfully in threading the mazes of this "hundred-harbored Maine,"
as Whittier describes it. Abandoning the pleasant vision of such a summer, let us for
the present remember that our special object is to visit and depict the scenery of Mount
Desert.
    The several points along the coast to which the visitor's attention is directed are the
cliffs known as "The Ovens," which lie some six or seven miles up the bay; and  Schooner


















                       View of Mount-Desert Mountains from Saulsbury-Cove Road.


Head," "Great Head," and " Otter-Creek Cliffs," lying on the seaward shores of the island.
It will fall more duly in order to proceed first to " The Ovens," which may be reached by
boat or by a pleasant drive of seven or eight miles.
    With a one-armed veteran for an escort, Mr. Fenn and the writer set forth for a
scene where we were promised many charming characteristics for pen and pencil. It was
necessary to time our visit to "The Ovens "-the nomenclature of Mount Desert is pain-
fully out of harmony with the scenes it verbally libels-so as to reach the beach at low
tide. The cliffs can be approached only by boat at high tide, and the picture at this
juncture loses some of its pleasing features.
    The Mount-Desert roads for the most part are in good condition, and have many at-
tractions. The forests are crowded with evergreens, and the firs and the spruce-trees mar-
shal in such array on the hill-sides that, with their slender, spear-like tops, they look like
armies of lancers. The landscape borrows from these evergreens an Alpine tone, which



4



A:



 






























































































THE CLIFFS NEAR "THE OVENs,.

 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



groups of pedestrians for the mountains, armed with alpenstocks, notably enhance.  The
fir, spruce, pine, and arbor-vitae, attain splendid proportions; the slender larch is in places
also abundant, and a few sturdy hemlocks now and then vary the picture. The forest-
scenes are, many of them, of singular beauty, and in our long drives about the island
we discovered many a strongly-marked forest-group.
    At one point on our drive to " The Ovens," the road, as it ascends a hill near Sauls-
bury Cove, commands a fine, distant view of the mountains, which Mr. Fenn rapidly
sketched. Clouds of fog were drifting along their tops, now obscuring and now reveal-
ing them, and adding often a vagueness and mystery to their forms which lent them an
additional charm.
    The cliffs at "The Ovens" contrast happily with the rocks on the sea-front of the
island in possessing a delicious quiet and repose. The waters ripple calmly at their feet,
and only when winds are high do the waves chafe and fret at the rocks. Here the perpen-
dicular pile of rock is crowned by growths of trees that ascend in exact line with the wall,
casting their shadows on the beach below. Grass and flowers overhang the edge; at
points in the wall of rock, tufts of grass and nodding harebells grow, forming pleasant
pictures in contrast with the many-tinted rocks, in the crevices of which their roots have
found nourishment. The whole effect of the scene here is one of delicious charm. The
wide and sunny bay, the boats that glide softly and swiftly upon its surface, the peaceful
shores, the cliff crowned with its green forest, make up a picture of great sweetness and
beauty. " The Ovens" are cavities worn by the tides in the rock. Some are only slight
excavations, such as those shown in Mr. Fenn's drawing, but a little northward of the spot
are caves of a magnitude sufficient to hold thirty or forty people. The rocks are mainly of
pink feldspar, but within the caves the sea has painted them in various tints of rare beauty,
such as would delight the eye and tax the skill and patience of a painter to reproduce. The
shores here, indeed, supply almost exhaustless material for the sketch-book of the artist.
    To this spot, at hours when the tide permits, pleasure-seekers come in great numbers. It
is a favorite picnic-ground for the summer residents at East Eden, whose graceful pleasure-
boats give animation to the picture. The visitors picnic in the caves, pass through the arch-
way of a projecting cliff, which some designate as "1 Via Mala," wander through the forests
that crown the cliffs, pluck the wild-roses and harebells that overhang the precipice, and roam
up and down the beach in search of the strange creatures of the sea that on these rocky
shores abound. Star-fishes, anemones, sea-urchins, and other strange and beautiful forms of
marine life, make grand aquaria of the caves all along the coast, and add a marked relish to
the enjoyment of the explorer.
    From the quiet beauty of " The Ovens" to the turbulence of the seaward shore there is
a notable change. Our next point visited was " Schooner Head," which lies four or five miles
southward from East Eden, and looks out on the wide Atlantic. " Schooner Head" is so
named from the fancy that a mass of white rock on its sea-face, viewed at a proper distance,



6

 


ON THE COAST OF MAINE.



has the appearance of a small schooner. There is a tradition that, in the War of 1812, a
British frigate sailing by ran in and fired upon it, under the impression that it was an Ameri-
can vessel hugging the shore.  " Schooner Head" derives its principal interest from the
" Spouting Horn," a wide chasm in the cliff, which extends down to the water and opens to
the sea through a small archway below high-water mark. At low water the arch may be



Great Head.



reached over the slippery, weed-covered rocks, and the chasm within ascended by means of
uncertain footholds in the sides of the rocky wall. A few adventurous tourists have accom-
plished this feat, but it is a very dangerous one. If the foot should slip on the smooth, briny
rock, and the adventurer glide into the water, escape would be almost impossible. The waves
would suck him down intQ their depths-now toss him upon rocks, whose slippery surface
would resist every attempt to grasp, then drag him back into their foaming embrace. When



7

 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



the tide comes in, the breakers dash with great violence through the archway described, and
hurl themselves with resounding thunder against the wall beyond, sending their spray far up
the sides of the chasm. But, when a storm prevails, then the scene is one of extreme gran-
deur.  The breakers hurl themselves with such wild fury through the cavernous opening
against the walls of rock, that their spray is hurled a hundred feet above the opening at the
top of the cliff, as if a vast geyser were extemporized on the shore. The scene is inspiriting
and terrible. Visitors to Mount Desert but half understand or appreciate its wonders if they
do not visit the cliffs in a storm. On the softest summer day the angry but subdued roar
with which the breakers ceaselessly assault the rocks gives a vague intimation of what their
fury is when the gale lashes them into tumult. At such times they hurl themselves against
the cliffs with a violence that threatens to beat down the rocky barriers and submerge the
land; their spray deluges the abutments to their very tops, and the thunder of their angry
crash against the rock may be heard for miles. But at other times the ceaseless war they
make upon the shore seems to be one of defeat. The waves come in full, sweeping charge
upon the rocks, but hastily fall back, broken and discomfited, giving place to fresh and
hopeful levies, who repeat the first assault, and, like their predecessors, are hurled back de-
feated. The war is endless, and yet by slow degrees the sea gains upon its grim and silent
enemy.  It undermines, it makes channels, it gnaws caverns, it eats out chasms, it wears
away little by little the surface of the stone, it summons the aid of frost and of heat to dis-
lodge and pull down great fragments of the masonry, it grinds into sand, it gashes with
scars, and it will never rest until it has dragged down the opposing walls into its depths.
    "' Great Head," two miles southward of " Schooner Head," is considered the highest head-
land on the island. It is a bold, projecting mass, with at its base deep gashes worn by the
waves. A view of its grim, massive front is obtained by descending a broken mass of cyclo-
pean rocks a little below the cliff, where at low tide, on the sea-washed bowlders, the cliff tow-
ers above you in a majestic mass.
    People in search of the picturesque should understand the importance of selecting suit-
able points of view. The beauty or impressiveness of a picture sometimes greatly depends
on this. It is often a matter of search to discover the point from which an object has its
best expression; and probably only those of intuitive artistic tastes are enabled to see all
the beauties of a landscape, which others lose in ignorance of how to select the most ad-
vantageous standing-place. To the cold and indifferent, Nature has no charms; she reveals
herself only to those who surrender their hearts to her influence, and who patiently study
her aspects. The beauty of any object lies partly in the capacity of the spectator to see it,
and partly in his ability to put himself where the form and color impress the senses most
effectively. Not one man in ten discerns half the beauty of a tree or of a pile of rocks, and
hence those who fail to discover in a landscape the charm others describe in it, should
question their own power of appreciation rather than the accuracy of the delineation. The
shores of Mount Desert must be studied with this appreciation and taste, if their beauties



8



 




















































































THE " SPOUTING HORN I IN A STORMK
      s

 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.



are to be understood. No indifferent half glance will suffice. Go to the edge of the cliffs
and look down; go below, where they lift in tall escarpments above you; sit in the shadows
of their massive presence; study the infinite variety of form, texture, and color, and learn to
read all the different phases of sentiment their scarred fronts have to express. When all
this is done, be assured you will discover that "sermons in stones" was not a mere fancy
of the poet.
    One of the characteristics of Mount Desert is the abundance of fog.        In July and
August especially it seriously interferes with the pleasure of the tourist. It often happens
that, for several days in succession, mountain, headland, and sea, are wrapped in an impene-
trable mist, and all the charms of the landscape obscured. But the fog has frequently a
grace and charm of its own. There are days when it lies in impenetrable banks far out
at sea, with occasional incursions upon the shore that are full of interest.  At one hour
the sun is shining, when all at once the mist may be discerned creeping in over the sur-
face of the water, ascending in rapid drifts the sides of the mountains, enveloping one b