On the right, facing southward, rises
Graylock, all beshagged with forest, and with headlong precipices of rock
appearing among the black pines. Southward there is a most extensive
view of the valley, in which Saddleback and its companion mountains are
crouched,--wide and far,--a broad, misty valley, fenced in by a mountain
wall, and with villages scattered along it, and miles of forest, which
appear but as patches scattered here and there upon the landscape. The
descent from the Notch southward is much more abrupt than on the other
side. A stream flows down through it; and along much of its course it
has washed away all the earth from a ledge of rock, and then formed a
descending pavement, smooth and regular, which the scanty flow of water
scarcely suffices to moisten at this period, though a heavy rain,
probably, would send down a torrent, raging, roaring, and foaming. I
descended along the course of the stream, and sometimes on the rocky path
of it, and, turning off towards the south village, followed a cattle-path
till I came to a cottage.
A horse was standing saddled near the door, but I did not see the rider.
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