.^^ ^^„ yjw** ,^' ^% ^^' %. ^yi%^,* .^^' \ • '^.j. ^-^ '^^ .*"% CO. -^o r.T» A 'vy-'i6^:.\..«^' -i^. f/ ^■>'% '^jjm'j'\ ^^.^ '. o •'ov* .':^^^'- '*^o< i ^.^^'^'^o^ V'^-rS^V^^^ "V*^-**/ V'^rfT'-^^^ ... » X/ -^^'- %.^^ ^^^^^ \./ -^^ %/ *^^^'^^"" .0 %^ ' .j5^^ /.•i-:«^'\ c°^^^^■^<'o /.c;^^.\ /-j^^-'A /\ ^"-^^^ - . ...'.. ^e. . ** ,0 'bv" .'. "^^0^ i > .-^^ 'Key \ .-^^ -' THE H iLLiAM Henry Hotel Lake George, Warren Co., N. Y. T. ROESSLE & SON, Proprietors. A1.SO PKOPEIETORS OF THE AMLIWGTOW, THE JDELA VAN, Washington'^ JD. €, SEASON, FROM JUNE 1 TO OCTOBER 1. During the past winter the house has been thoroughly overhauled and several important additions have been made, prominent among which may be mentioned, a new dining-room, giving a facility for dining com- fortably one thousand guests. Through cars are now run daily from Grand Central Depot to Fort William Henry Hotel without change. 0) The American Fall— ^^^hitney. OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. %aT ^0alil|, yi^asure, anb l^^craalinii. WHERE TO GO AND HOW TO GET THERE. CONCERNING THE SUMMER AND WINTER RESORTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, FROM SEA-SHORE TO MOUNTAIN AND GLEN, AND FROM THE GROVES OF SUNNY FLORIDA TO THE LAKES AND PARKS OF THE NORTH AND WEST, WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH, THEIR LEADING ATTRACTIONS, HO- TEL ACCOMMODATIONS, LO- CATION, MEANS OF AP- PROACH, RAIL WA Y FARES, ETC. With nearly One Hundred and Fit^ Illustrations. Edited by LOUIS M. BABCOCK. Copyright 1883. — All rights reserved. FIRST EDITION, /<^' ^'''!1"''''' "^ '^ WASHINGTON, D. C. : NATIONAL NEWS BUREAU. 1883. PREFACE. "k '^^\ y. THE work of planning, gathering materials for and preparing this edition of Our American Resorts was not begun until late in the season, or about the time it should have been ready for the press. It has, therefore, been hurriedly done. Of its shortcomings and imper- fections the editor is quite as well aware as will be its severest critics. The difficulties encountered in the preparation of such a work are multitudinous, not the least of which is the tardiness and lack of en- terprise among those whose interest it is to have information concerning themselves widely disseminated. For this unbusiness-like backward- ness, the many worthless and dishonest publications through which they have been annoyed and defrauded are, no doubt, largely responsible. But this, added to the great difficulty in reaching proprietors of resorts at a season when they are not open, has rendered any approach to completeness in the present issue impossible. Still, the work as it is compares favorably with any of its class heretofore published, and ul- timately it shall be vastly superior to them all. Nothing like a Directory has been attempted. A work of that char- acter sufficiently complete to embrace all the nooks and hamlets that consider themselves resorts would require more than a thousand pages of closely-condensed matter, involve interminable labor, and possess no special interest when issued. In these pages an effort has been made to present in readable form — with numerous illustrations for embellishment and aid — correct impressions of the important resorts and natural wonders within the borders of our own land, including something concerning the characteristics and climates of the localities in which they are situated. The work therefore, without being strictly either a Guide, Gazetteer or Handbook, contains much information pertaining to the realm of travel for health or sight-seeing. On the first of May next a thoroughly revised edition "|l will be issued, containing all that is worth gathering to complete the work, with over one hundred additional illus- trations, many of them from new and original sketches, engraved by the best artists. The aim will be to embrace not only all places worthy of note, but to incorporate the fullest details concerning them, their accommodations, and the various routes of travel. A table of railway and steamboat fares between resorts named and the principal cities will also be added. Meanwhile correspondence is solicited with all who may be interested. Washington, D. C, June ist, 1883. ^ CONTENTS. THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, The Capital as a Resort— Its Location and Plan — The Beauty of the Streets, Avenues, and Parks — The Capitol and other Public Buildings — The Suburbs": Soldiers' Home, Arlington, Cabin John's Bridge, Great Falls, Rock Creek — Mount Vernon. VIRGINIA RESORTS, Characteristics of the Mountain Scenery — Beauties of the Rivers, Mountains, Streams, and Waterfalls — Mineral Springs — Along the Chesapeake and Ohio, Virginia Midland, and Shenandoah Valley Railroads. Coynkr's Springs, FlNCASTI.E Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, Mountain Lake, Old Point Comfort, .... PENNSYLVANIA RESORTS, . Features of Pennsylvania Scenery — Mountain, Valley, Forest, and River most Picturesquely Blended — Excellence of the Farms — Resorts along the great Pennsylvania Railroad — The Valley of the Schuylkill and Reading Railroad. Altoona, . Bedford Springs, Cresson Springs, . . . " Delaware Water Gap, Kane, ' Renovo, OUR NATURAL WONDERS, . The Yellowstone National Park, The "Wonder-land" of the World — The Geysers — The Falls and Grand Canyon — Tower Creek and Falls — Yellowstone Lake — " Devil's Den " — Hot Springs of Gardiner's River — The Great Attractions of the Yellowstone Park — Drawbacks to, and Facilities afforded for, visiting the Park. Niagara Falls, Caverns of Luray, Watkins' Glen, . MOUNTAIN RESORTS, Colorado, The River Canyons — Extent of Mountain Scenery — The Parks — Denver — Colorado Springs — Manitou — Garden of the Gods — Idaho Springs — Georgetown — Green Lake — Gray's Peak — The Climate. California, The Yosemite Valley — Lake Tahoe — Donner Lake— The Big Trees — The Geysers. The Catskills, Beauty of Scenery — Haines's Falls — Kaaterskill Clove — Overlook Mountain — Nooks and By- ways — Means of Access. Adirondacks Extent of Mountains and Uniformity of Height — The Numerous Lakes — Different Routes through the Wilderness — A Paradise for Sportsmen. The White Mountains, Characteristics of the Mountains, Valleys, Glens, and Rivers — From North Conway to Berlin Falls — From North Conway to Lancaster— Scenery and Points of Interest along the Routes — The Presidential Range-^Mount Washington— Bethlehem — The Franconia Group. (v; PAGE 9 IS 23 25 30 31 33 35 37 39 40 41 47 54 57 57 71 79 89 CON J EN TS. MINERAL SPRINGS RESORTS, Saratoga, ....... White Sulphur Springs, VV. Va., Hot Springs, Ark., The Great Spirit Spring, Kan., Waukesh.\ Springs, Wis HEALTH RESORTS OF THE SOUTH, Climate and Characteristics of Florida — Jacksonville — Green Cove Springs — Wakulla Springs — South Carolina Resorts: Aiken, Charleston — Northern Georgia and Western North Caro- lina: Asheville — Scenery. 96 96 98 98 99 100 103 LAKES AND RIVERS, . The Five Great Lakes of the North^Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior — Beauty of Lake Michi- gan — Straits and Island of Mackinaw — Lake Huron — Lake Erie — Incidents connected with our National and Colonial History — Lake Ontario — Summer Resorts on the Shores of the Lakes. Lake Geneva, Wis., Lake George, N. Y., Otsego Lake, N. Y., Lake Winnepesaukee, N. H Lake Memphremagog, V't., MoosEHEAD Lake, Me., . Lake Champlain, N. Y., Chautauqua Lake, N. Y., Greenwood Lake, N. Y., Devil's Lake, Wis., Lake Minnetonka, Minn., Devil's Lake, Dak., The Great Rivers, Scenery of the Hudson — The Upper Mississippi and the Dells- of the Wisconsin — The Thousand Islands and Rapids of the St. Lawrence — Montreal and Quebec — The Wonderful River Saguenay. Trenton Falls, N. Y., SEASHORE RESORTS, Atlantic City, Cape May, Long Branch, Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, Newport, .... Narragansett Pier, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, .... Bass Rocks, .... From Cape Ann to Cape Cod, Boston — Chelsea — Nahant^Swampscott — Marblehead — Rockport — Pigeon Cove — " Down the Harbor " — Downer Landing — Melville Garden — Nantasket — Cohassett — Plymouth — Along the Cape to Provincetown. Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert Island, Me., Isles of Shoals, N. H., Railway Announcements, Hotel and other Cards, 151 to n6 117 119 120 121 121 122 124 125 126 127 128 129 129 137 140 141 142 144 144 146 146 147 147 149 168 WEE ^musmE. U M M E R recreation has come to be a recognized necessity. Rest, change, and relaxation are natural requirements of the human system, and especially of the dwellers in cities, whose lives partake so much of the artificial, and who are so far re- moved, as it were, from nature and the influences of outdoor freedom. Hercules could not, at first, conquer Antaeus — the son of earth and sea — because each time the giant was thrown he gained new strength from mother earth. The parallel is easily drawn. As the human mind and body need sleep, «^ as they should have one day in seven for rest, so do they require each year a period during which they may escape from the toil and vexations of business, the wear, and grind, and the routine of usual avocations, and gain new vigor by simple contact with nature, breathing the air, using the diet, seeing the sights, and hearing the sounds of the country. Cowper expresses a homely truth in his lines : " God made the country and man made the town ; What wonder, then, that health and virtue, gifts That can alone make sweet the bitter draught That life holds out to all, should most abound And least he threatened in the fields and groves?" In this age the feverish excitement of speculation, the sharp competition in business, and the close application and incessant activity of professional and business men, with high rates of living and social dissipations, all combine to break down health in our cities and render a season of recuperation doubly necessary. It is not, therefore, for mere idle pleasure and sight-seeing alone that such a large proportion of city people now annually spend a part of the heated term away from home — in the mountains, at the springs, or the sea-shore, — and that the number is increasing year by year. And at this season, when the first warm days foreshadow the warmer ones to come, the preparations for vacation begin — the casting about for a- place to go occupies attention. It is the time when " The bleating lambs, of tender age. ■ Frisk gayly o'er the lawn. The sweatful farmer smites his mules And ploughs the growing corn. The city cousins pack their trunks And'coo their softest coo. Dear Uncle — We'll be down next week And bring the children, too." (vii) viii PROLOGUE. It is a good thing that in this world of ours a means of supply is provided for every real need; that as the seasons roll round with their ceaseless changes the genius of man is con- stantly devising ways of meeting and filling the requirements of the day and hour, thus making not only the waste places of the earth but of men's souls "blossom as the rose." With the increase of demand there is an increase of inducements, and every year new- attractions are developed, new beauties and new wonders discovered. There are summer resorts and summer resorts ; places where the curious and vain may see and be seen, where nature in its loveliest and grandest aspects maybe studied, or where tired humanity may refresh itself according to its bent. The great variety is only equalled by the vastly differing tastes and requirements. And as inclinations diverge one year, so will the same individuals recognize in themselves changed conditions and needs for the next. In this, as in all things, variety is the spice of life. " Of all the passions that possess mankind, The love of novelty rules most the mind ; In search of this, from realm to realm we roam, * Our fleets come fraught with ev'ry folly home." Yet changing and changeful mankind, with many pleasures to choose, can sometimes find delight in none. Among those- who have naught to seek but enjoyment, that is not infre- quently found the most tiresome of all occupations, for satiety is a stubborn disease. Often the things which were erstwliile our pleasure to-day pall upon the taste ; and a quotation from one of Pope's moral essays well depicts the humor of many who seek places of resort: " Papillia, wedded to her amorous spark, Sighs for the shades — ' how charming is a park I' A park is purchased, but the fair he sees All bathed in tears — O, odious, odious trees." But withal, summer resorts are a blessing to the race, and sick or well, rich or poor, all derive increase of years with increase of happiness from the days or weeks spent in rational recreation. In the succeeding pages are described many places of real interest, anv of which will amply repay a visit, either for health or pleasure. Whe GibY of Waghingfeon " Sun of the moral w orld ! (.ffulgent source Of man's best wisdom and his steadiest force, Soul-searching Freedom ! here assume thy stand, And radiate hence to every distant land." T is certainly appropriate that a work on American Resorts emanating from the National Capital, should begin with something concerning the attractions of a city in which all Americans are interested, and to which thousands of tourists and sight- seers journey every month in the year. Washington is sought and visited by people from every section, at all seasons, not alone because it is the nation's capital, but also for the reason that it is the most beautiful and attractive of American cities, its climate the most salubrious, and its surroundings the most interesting. In spring and summer people come to see' the beauties of the city, and to visit the places of public interest of which they have heard. In winter people of wealth come to enjoy the comforts of a mild climate and to The Capitol. participate in the round of semi-official social pleasures. The artist, the philosopher and the scholar find here a congenial workshop, and rich stores of the choicest fruits culled from nature, art and literature. So, to this city, already great and beautiful, but destined probably to be greater and more beautiful than Rome in its prime, come all the currents of the national life, a tide of vast magnitude, which increases in volume as the country grows in population and the attractions of the Capital multiply in number and variety. It was said of Rome that "as the streams lose themselves in the ocean, so the history of the peoples once distributed along the Mediterranean shores is absorbed in that of the great mistress of the world." Of Washington it may be said that it is rapidly becoming a storehouse of the products of the 2 (9) OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. genius of all mankind. Our seat of government, apart from its political attractions, contains, even now, so much that is of interest in architecture and antiquities, such art collections and such treasuries of knowledge and invention in its museums and its Patent Office, as to com- pete almost on even terms with the great centres of commerce all combined. The actual population of Washington is not above two hundred thousand ; but, like the human heart which it typifies, all the blood of the country, sooner or later, runs through it, and everybody is at one time or another a resident. The ebb and flow of transient visitors and temporary inhabi- tants is so enormous that railways alone can give prompt ingress and egress to the tide, and these railways, by the very facilities they furnish, but provoke a still greater volume of travel. Do you want to find a particular man on the street ? Stand where you are and he will pass by after awhile. So, if you want to see anybody, you have only to go to Washington and wait a day or two ; he will be sure to turn up. It is worth your while to visit the city, if only to be surprised by the sudden appearance of the very last person in the world that you ever expected to see. Washington is located on the east bank of the Potomac', at the head of navigation, 295 miles from the ocean, where the river runs from the northwest to the I southeast and expands to the width of over a mile. It is situated upon and surrounded by high bluffs and hills on the Maryland side, while on the opposite side are Arlington Heights and Fort Whipple. The District of Columbia was selected as the site of the National Capital after much consideration by Congress, ex- The Smithsonian Institute. tending over the period from October, 1783, to July, 1790; and on the i6th day of the latter month the act entitled "An act establishing the temporary and permanent seat of government of the United States" was passed by a vote of 32 to 29. Many and weighty were the reasons urged for the selection made, not the least among which was the deference and respect which would thus be paid to the wishes of General Washington, who from the first strongly advocated this point ; his attention, it is said, having been fixed upon its advantages when a youthful surveyor of the country round. That he builded better than he knew is evidenced in the fact that the Washington of to-day eclipses the most sanguine expectations of its founder, and in beauty far surpasses the capitals of other nations. The design of L'Enfant who planned the city, although derided for seventy years, has through the genius and energy of Governor Shepherd been made to develop into a model of convenience and sightliness. Though many changes have been made since Webster- denominated Washington "a city of magnificent distances," its broad streets and numerous reservations are still suggestive of abundant breathing-room. These broad, well-paved and cleanly-swept streets^ interspersed with parks, squares and fountains, are laid out in parallel WASHINGTON C/l Y. II lines from east to west and north to south, while the avenues radiating from the Capitol and Executive Mansion intersect them at various points, forming circles, triangles, and oblongs, all of which are beautifully adorned with trees, shrubbery and flowers. There is hardly a street or avenue but adown its vista some allurement is displayed ; this one reaches far away through the green of maple and linden and the blue of distance across the long bridge to the hills of Virginia; that one ends in the lovely grounds of the Agricultural Department or the Smithsonian Institute, while Pennsylvania Avenue, like the kaleidoscope, presents new scenes at every turn. Almost every foot of its length and breadth is replete with his- torical incidents. Here ruler and ruled jostle each other ; cabinet officers and senators and representatives are not distinguished above the common mass, and over this smooth roadway noiselessly rolls the liveried equipage of foreign ambassadors, side by side with the humble vehicle of the private citizen. Sooner or later all the famous of our own White House— East View. and other countries are tolerably sure to meet and pass upon this grand highway. Wash- ington in his yellow chariot, drawn by six white horses, has driven over it; Hamilton, Lafayette, Clay, Webster, and all the gods of the Republic have trodden it. Five hundred thousand Federal soldiers marched up this avenue in review before the President and the Generals of the Army, shouting their songs of gladness, in 1865, when grim-visaged war had given way to white-winged peace. Those who remember the Washington of 1861-5, upon returning now for the first time, can scarcely realize that the Washington of to-day is the same city. Sections which were then outlying swamps, and others that were the abode of wretchedness and squalor, have been transformed into something like fairyland. Grand and imposing public buildings have been erected ; squares and parks have been laid out and improved and beautified, and palatial private residence?, with surrounding adorn- ments, have risen up in every quarter. OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. Naturally the public buildings first attract the visitor's eye. The Capitol, the central figure, first awes, then allures by its imposing outline and proportions. It is not only the finest building in America, but in the world. Standing in all its magnificence upon one of the city's highest hills, the great white dome, surmounted by the colossal statue of the Goddess of Liberty, rises over the immense pile of granite like an imperishable signal of freedom for the oppressed of all the earth. At its base the greensward, velvety lawns and embowering trees betoken the shelter and repose found in the shadow of its aegis. The east fagade or front of the building looks out over East Capitol Park and the plain of Capitol Hill, with the azure hills of " My Maryland " for a background, the west overlooking the business part of the city and the Potomac, commanding a view pronounced by the great traveller Humboldt one of the most beautiful his eyes had ever beheld. The Capitol is not only interesting and pleasing on account of the beauty of its exterior and surroundings, but it contains within some of the richest treasures of the nation. First, there is the Congressional library, one of the largest and most valuable in the world ; the Senate Chamber, Hall of Representatives, Gallery of Statuary, and the Ro- tunda filled with paintings by our greatest masters. A continuous park about two miles in length ex- tends from the Capitol westward to the Potomac, within which are the Botanical Gardens and Green- houses, the Smithsonian Institu- tion, and New National Museum, containing a vast collection of natural curiosities and works of art, the Department of Agricul- ture, the Washington Monument, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where all our bank notes and government stamps are made. The west end of this park sweeps round to the north, taking in the Treasury Building, the Executive Mansion, known as the White House, and that elegant new structure, a model of modern architecture, occupied by the State, War and Navy Departments. Besides these there are in other sections of the city, the Interior Department building, containing the bureaus of Indian Affairs, Public Lands, and the Patent Office, with the thousands of models stored there as monuments to the genius of American inventors, the Post-Office Department, the Medical Museum, the Naval Observatory, the Navy Yard, and many other points each entitled to a day's inspection. To minutely mention all the public buildings and institutions is not the province of this work. The visitor will find comprehensive guide-books easily obtained if needed, and will learn in a few days' sojourn many interesting facts and details not readily committed to paper. The tourist to Washington usually comes with the notion that the Public Buildings, the President and Congress comprise about all there is worth seeing in the Capital. But, while Lee Mansion at Arlington. IV.^ SUING TON CI T V. 13 these are among its chief attractions, there are many others equally calculated to interest and delight. Lincoln Park, with the colossal statue of the "Martyred President" striking the chains from the limbs of the slave, Lafayette Park, with Mills' Equestrian Statue of Jackson, the most wonderful artistic work of its class, Washington Circle, with its statue of him who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," with various other parks and circles wherein are statues of Scott, Thomas, McPherson, Farragut and other national heroes present a study of interest./ The Corcoran Art Gallery, the personal gift of the great philan- thropist whose name it bears, is known throughout the land, and in its spacious halls are gathered some of the finest gems that have made immortal the artists of this and past generations. Besides all these interesting features within the city, there are other attractions no less im- portant in its surroundings. The drives about Washington are unsurpassed, af- fording views of nature's wildest freaks as well as the cultivated splendors of romantic and aesthetic taste. Two hun- dred old forts crumbling to decay on the hills round about are eloquent reminders of our late civil war; Arlington, with its memories of Washington, Custis and Lee, and its thousands of mounds above the dead who died for country ; the Soldiers' Home, with its eight or nine hundred acres of park, its unrivalled drives stretching over hill and vale, and its wilderness of flowers and forest trees; Kalorama Heights, overlooking the city and affording a view southward as far as the eye can reach, are each worthy of more than passing notice, and afford hours of pleasant, satisfying exploration. The scenery along the Potomac to Great Falls, 16 miles above Georgetown, is marvellous in its romantic beauty. A trip past the Georgetown Heights, over the conduit road, and past Cabin, John's Bridge, the longest single span in the world, is one of the many pleasant rides. The Great Falls themselves and their surroundings comprise a scene scarcely equalled anywhere for romantic beauty and ruggedness. Another of the delightful drives about the Capital is up Rock Creek, the stream which separates West Washington from the city proper. The country around this creek, though bordering upon the city and almost entering its very gates, today remains in the perfection of wildness and natural beauty. It is indeed an enchanting spot, replete with inviting retreats, leafy bowers and rippling waters. " Nature was here so lavish of her store That she bestowed until she had no more." The garden spot of Washington, literally, is the portion south of Pennsylvania avenue, including what is termed the Mall and the White lot. In this area of several hundred acres are some beautiful drives, around the Botanical Garden, in the Smithsonian and Agricultural grounds, and around the other squares included. The report of the Parking Commission shows that there are to-day nearly one hundred and twenty niiles of trees in the city of Soldiers' Home. 14 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. Washington, of which about one-half are maples. The remainder includes poplars, box elders, elms, lindens, buttonwooas, willows and firs. These include only the work of the Parking Commission and represent the fruits of about ten years' labor. The young trees thrive well and give promise of making the city more and more attractive as yearly they increase in size. The stately giants in the public parks, also numbered by thousands, are not included in the count of nature's ornaments under the charge of this Commission. Few visitors to Washington leave it without taking a trip to Mount Vernon, the former home and present resting-place of the "Father of his Country." It is an exceedingly pleasant excursion down the Potomac past Fort Washington and Fort Foote, and the scenery along the river is full of picturesque inter- est. The steamer Corcoran which makes this trip dai- ly, leaving at lo a. M., and returning at 4 P.M., is one of the finest ves- sels on the river, and is under the command of Cap- tain L. L. Blake, well known as an experienced and genial officer. The tolling of the steamer's bell an- nounces the ap- proach to the tomb of Washington, in accordance with the custom among all steam vessels while passing Mount Vernon. Once in the grounds time passes so rapidly while wandering through the groves and gardens of this beautiful old homestead, standing high upon the bluff overlooking the river, and there is so much interest in looking through the quaint old rooms of the mansion, that the day seems all too short. It is not the object of this article to picture all the visitor may see in and around the National Capital, but the aim has been to direct attention to some of the most attractive features, and to give a reason for the faith that is in us — to tell how the tourist may be repaid for coming here. Washington is reached from the south by. the Virginia Midland and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railways. From New York, Philadelphia and the East or West take the Pennsylvania Railroad. From the Southwest the Chesapeake and Ohio is the best route. The Baltimore and Ohio road also runs into Washington, and during the summer the Potomac Steamboat Company run a daily line to Norfolk connecting with steamers for New York, Boston and other points on the Atlantic coast. The hotel accommo- dations of the city are excellent and ample. The Arlington, Willard's, the Riggs, the Ebbitt, and other large first-class houses are unsurpassed in all their appointments. No city in the Union is better equipped for entertaining large numbers in comfort and luxury. ^iFginiei Res©rts. HE Old Dominion embraces within her borders such an extensive variety of health- restoring, pleasure-giving resorts as to be well entitled to a special classification of her own. Traversed by two ranges of mountains and innumerable winding rivers, the State abounds in beautiful valleys and incomparable landscapes, the magnificence and grandeur of which are not fully appreciated by many of her own people. One of the finest views the writer ever beheld may hs seen from the summit of the Blue Ridge mountains near Snicker's Gap, looking down into the famous Loudon val- ley ; but there are a hundred others from various points in both the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies nearly equal to it. Not only has Vir- ginia her full share of moun- tains, high rugged crags and rocky slopes, but beautiful cascades, wonderful caves, and romantic glens are en- countered in various por- tions of her domain. In the diversity, surprising charac- ter, and interesting features of the study she affords to lovers of the marvellous and picturesque, few localities can sustain a claim to supe- riority over the old State, which, in the early days of our national history, won distinction as "the mother of presidents." The mountains of Vir- ginia do not point bold stony summits above the clouds far beyond vegetation and timber line, like the lofty peaks of the Rockies in Colorado or the Sierras in California, but they are high enough to be grand, while still retaining the charm and beauty of verdure. The climate, in general, is that of the temperate zone, and the mountain region is exceedingly healthy. The thermometer seldom rises higher than 85° in the hottest days, and the nights are always cool. Occupying a middle ground t)etween the rigorous climate of the North and the ener- vating heat of the extreme South, Virginia is geographically one of the choicest sections of the country. The principal rivers of the State are the Potomac, the Greenbrier, the Rappahannock, (15) New Rivet' al INuttallburg, C. and. O. Railway. OUK A MEN /CAN A'£SOA'T.S. the Shenandoah, the James, of which the Chickahominy is a tributary, the York, the New, and the Roanoke. Nearly all these are navigable to a considerable distance toward the moun- tains in which they generally take their rise, and their banks are highly picturesque. Beyond the limits of navigation the wildness of mountain streams obtain, and numerous waterfalls of striking beauty are to be seen. Of these, the falls of the James River, and the New River Falls, seven miles from Hinton, on the Chesa- peake and Ohio Railway, are perhaps the most noted. The cataract of the latter is but twenty-four feet high, but the width of the river and extent of the rapids make a scene of unusual wonder. Next to her mountains, the Mineral Springs of Virginia are her chief attraction. They are many in number and extensively varied in character. Some are famous throughout the country, the Old White Sulphur, for instance, having been a noted fashionable resort and political rendezvous for years before the Civil V/ar. Several of the most prominent are situated on the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. The tourist over this line will enjoy one of the most picturesque journeys to be found on this continent. The scenery is Griffiths' Knob, C. and O. Railway. VIRGINIA RESORTS. 17 not, perhaps, as sublime and startling as that along the narrow gauge roads of Colorado, but it is wild and abrujit, with all the softening tints of a fine painting. Along the Norfolk and Western and Shenandoah Valley roads there are also glimpses of such landscapes as few sections of country afford. " 'Tis beauty {ruly lent, whose red and wliite Nature's o\mi sweet cunning hand hiid on." Every one who has ever crossed the Alps into Italy remembers the zigzags from which he looks down on the valley lie is reaching, but without exaggeration it may be said that all the alternations of dark tunnel and picturesque valley of that famous little road could be sub- tracted from the Chesapeake and Ohio line without being missed. All travellers by the famous Pennsylvania Railroad remember that attractive piece of fancy engineering known as Horseshoe Bend, and nobody has gone to California without treasuring a recollection of the rounding of Cape Horn, where the train winds round the high brow of a mountain as if it had climbed up to give you a look at the valleys below. The tourist across the Virginias can have delights like these again and again repeated. The Rhine owes no little of its attractiveness to the battlements on its steeps. The New River is not indeed like the Rhine in depth or breadth ; but it has features of its own. Buffalo Gap. Now it is a broad stream leisurely chattering to the woods that overhang it ; anon it is in a narrower bed scolding the rocks as large as houses, that have intruded themselves upon it from the hill-sides, of which they grew weary. But for giant cliffs, Eagle's Nests, Lover's Leaps, and mountain fastnesses in ruins, the New River can compete with any stream of travelled lands, and with this difference in its favor, that no cunning count or baron bold piled up those frowning battlements. Geological forces in an Omnipo- tent hand, and with unlimited time in which to work, placed these precipitous, castle-like crowns on the wooded hills, and gave them a peculiarity not seen elsewhere, namely, that behind them corn and wine abound; for the Alleghanies are fertile to their summits. As one is whirled along, it is difificult to say which challenges most admiration — the river below, the cliffs above, the graceful lines of the hills, the moving shadows over the green slopes of the mountain sides, or the sublime audacity that built a railroad through such a region. The Chesapeake and Ohio (onnects with the Virginia Midland at Charlottesville, where passengers from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and ^A7"hale's Head. 'ill:: ii' ^4^ltff' '' ^""' (i8) VIKGLV/A RESORTS. 19 Washington by the latter may change for the Virginia Springs or for points in West Virginia and the West, including Cincinnati and Louisville. A favorite summer route from the East is by water to Richmond or Fortress Monroe and Old Point Comfort, thence west by the Chesapeake and Ohio. Starting from proud old Alexandria, the Virginia Midland route passes through a section of country not only full of natural attractions, but bristling with points of historical interest dating back to the Revolution and extending down to our late Civil War. Following the southwesterly trend of the Blue Ridge mountains after it leaves Alexandria, the road shows an almost con- tinuous ascent until it reaches the memorable bat- tle-field of Manassas. Here a fine view of the surround- ing country may be had ; and from the earth-works, pared down by the hand of time, which mark the out- lines of the entrenched camp built by the Confed- erates, a very wide landscape is seen. At Riverton the Manassas Division of the Midland crosses the She- nandoah Valley Railroad, with its magnificent scenic and metallurgic attractions. Going northward the trav- eller in a few minutes finds himself in Clarke County, and surrounded by the his- toric homes of the gentry of the old days, some of their country seats being on a style that is truly lordly. Washington's office and lodgings at Soldiers' Rest, where Gen. Daniel Morgan, of Revolutionary fame, once lived; Greenway Court, the seat of the ec- centric Lord Fairfax; the old chapel, built in 1796; the homes of Philip Pendleton Cooke, the poet-author of "Florence Vane," and of his scarcely less distinguished brother, John Esten Cooke, the novelist, are in Clarke County. Nor are historic associations with the late war want- ing, many combats and skirmishes having taken place at or near Millwood and Berryville, the county seat. All through this section are various unpretentious summer resorts, where people from the neighboring cities find pleasant homes for the hot months. At Lynchburg close Falling Springs. 20 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. connections are made by the Midland with the Norfolk and Western Railroad for New Orleans, while at Chattanooga divergent lines convey the traveller to Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., Texas, and all points in the South and Southwest. At Danville the Midland connects with the famous Richmond and Danville system, which under one management extends from the Virginia capital to Augusta and Atlanta, Ga., and embraces over 2000 miles of road. Among the mineral springs of Virginia and West Virginia are many well-known resorts. The bare enumeration of them all would fill a page or more of this book, and to attempt an account of their curative qualities, or various claims as places of resort, would require the en- tire space of an octavo volume. Situated as they generally are, high up among the Alleghany ranges, they enjoy the perfection of mountain atmosphere and an abundance of forest shade. First and foremost are the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, in West Virginia, more fully spoken of elsewhere. The Red Sulphur, also in West Virginia, are twelve miles from Falcott Station, on the C. and O. Railway, and are the only springs of the kind in this country. The Sweet Chalybeate Springs are nine miles from the railroad, reached by stage from Alleghany, Lover's Leap, James River, near Lynchburg. in the height of the mountains. The "Old" Sweet, as they are called, are ten miles from Alleghany. These and the Berkeley and Capon Springs are in West Virginia. Healing Springs, in Bath County, Virginia, are sixteen miles from Covington, over a splendid turnpike. The Hot Springs are four miles further on in the same locality. Jordan Alum and the Rockbridge Alum are also on the Chesapeake and Ohio, reached by stage from Gosham and Millboro, re- spectively. Rawley Springs are in Rockingham County, twelve miles from Harrisonburg. The Yellow Sulphur are located three miles from Christiansburg, on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and the Blue Ridge Springs are directly on the line of that road. The Fauquier White Sulphur are near the terminus of the Warrenton branch of the Virginia Midland. All these springs are more or less famous and j)opular, and good accommodations may be found at each. Coyner's Springs. These White and Black Sulphur Springs are situated on the line of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, in Botetourt County, Va., in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 46 VIRGINIA RESORTS. 21 miles west of Lynchburg, within 5 miles of Roanoke City, and 158 miles from Bristol. The waters of these springs are celebrated for their medicinal qualities, and have been resorted to for years. In cases of difficult, imperfect or painful digestion, enfeebled condition of the nervous system, chronic diseases of the bladder or kidneys, skin diseases, indolent liver, with difficult or vitiated secretions, they will be found to be well adapted. The Black Suli)hur Spring is pronounced by physicians a natural emmenagogue, and peculiarly adapted to diseases pertaining to females, and is a specific in most cases. The improvements consist of a large four- story hotel, and cottages ranging on each side of a beautiful lawn handsomely shaded, through which a crystal stream passes. The climate is delightful, and in one of the most healthy situ- ations in the mountains of Virginia. Accommodations for 250 guests. All passenger trains of the Norfolk and Western road stop here, and conveyances from the hotel meet all arrivals. From Washington take the Virginia Midland train to Lynchburg. Fincastle. Situated six miles from Troutsville, on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, is the delightful village of Fincastle, which has of late years become a popular summer home for families from the neighboring cities. It is easy of access and the locality is exceedingly healthy, having an elevation of 1200 feet above sea level. Good fishing is reported in the streams and plenty of game near by. By a consolidation of interests a new Union Hotel has taken the place of Hayth's and the Western hotels, and excellent accommodations for a large number are now offered by Mr. William B. Hayth, the proprietor. Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs. These springs, the most fashionable and popular of all Southern resorts, are frequented every season by thousands of the elite of all sections of the country. The properties of the waters and the surroundings and attractions of the place are fully spoken of in another part of this book, under the head of " Mineral Spring Resorts." Next to the medicinal value of the waters, and the invigorating climate, the company which annually assembles there is most worthy of comment. Statesmen, men of letters, politicians, jurists, belles, and beauties, all gay and brilliant spirits turn to this enchanting spot, and here pleasure takes up her abode. The cottage system, with its pretty homelike surroundings, enables visitors to live in a whirl of gayety or the utmost retiracy, as their wishes may dictate. During the season, besides the nightly balls, there are several grand fancy and masquerades, which add to the amusement of the guests. The accommodations are extensive and comfortable ; besides the cottages, which are a hundred in number, the Grand Hotel is the largest building in the South. The house has been leased for five years by Harrison Phcebus, the popular proprietor of the Hygeia at Old Boint Comfort, and it will undoubtedly be kept in the same luxurious style as the latter, achieving a popularity never before attained. Mountain Lake. This singular and rather attractive place is well known in Virginia as "Salt Pond," but outside of the State there is very little acquaintance with it. The lake, the chief object of interest, is a beautiful and picturesquely situated little body of water, the highest, perhaps, in this part of the country, being over 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is about half a mile in length by less than a quarter wide, with no visible inlet or outlet. Its depth is some- thing remarkable, reaching, in some places, as authoritatively reported, over 200 feet. The origin of this lake is a mystery, though the traditions of the locality attribute it to the tramp- ing of herds of deer and buffalo frequenting a salt-lick on the spot many years ago, thus causing the earth to " hold water." This explanation, however, would hardly seem to account 1 1 '- Hawk's Nest. (22) VIRGINIA RESORTS. ,, for the great depth of the lake, which has been steadily increasing. Since 1804 this increase has amounted to 25 feet. No drouth ever affects it. The most probable theory is that the presence of this lake is due to some subterranean stream like Lost River. There is some remarkablfe scenery in the locality, views from the "Crow's Nest" and "Bald Knob," two high points near by, equalling any in the whole range of mountains for extent and beauty. Altogether the place would be one of unusual attractiveness if put m the hands of enterprising owners and provided with better improvements and accommodations. It is reached by stage or private conveyance from Christiansburg on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, or from Eggleston on the New River branch, now open, and twelve miles nearer. Old Point Comfort. There is scarcely a resort in the country more widely and favorably known than the Hygeia Hotel at "Old Point." Health-seekers from the northeastern and northwestern cities con- gregate at this half-way place between the tropics and their own colder climate in large numbers during the winter and spring, while many others seek it for the sea air in summer. It is also a favorite stopping-place for thousands who come that way on their return from Florida and the Bermudas. The Hygeia is situated one hundred yards from Fort Monroe, at the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads, fifteen miles from Norfolk and Portsmouth. It is reached by daily lines of steamers from Baltimore, Washington, Richmond and Norfolk, and by rail via the Midland and Chesapeake and Ohio Railways. The hotel is four stories in height, substantially built and well furnished. It has two Otis elevators, electric bells, with every modern convenience, including hot sea baths. It is in fact a perfect sanitarium. By improvements and additions recently made over 1000 guests can be comfortably entertained at any time. Wide and joyous-looking verandas fronting on the water, having 1500 feet, or about half their extent, encased in glass, during the cooler season, afford retreats where the most delicate may enjoy the sunlight and water-view without exposure. There is music and dancing every evening, and all the pleasures of a fashionable watering-place are to be enjoyed. §a?rrn !prri:-r!ii*\aji,'>'i|{7ffB(ftifr -Hiilaryed The climate of Old Point Comfort is unequalled for salubrity and general healthfulness, ma- larial fevers being absolutely unknown. The meteorological record for the past ten years shows an average temperature of 74° in summer, 59° in autumn, 44° in winter, and 52" for spring. The whole region roundabout is filled with picturesque scenery, offering delightful drives by day and romantic strolls by night. Boating and fishing are especially attractive, and the surf bathing, which is good from May until November, is unsurpassed on the Atlantic seaboard. For sleeplessness and nervousness, the delicious tonic of the pure ocean air and the lullaby of the waves rolling upon the sandy beach, but a few feet from the bedroom windows, are most healthful soporifics. A Pennsylvania Forest.— In the AUeghanies. (24) ieBFis\%eiBia Res©Pfes. VERY American tourist or considerable traveller is more or less familiar with Pennsylvania scenery. In whatever direction one travels over that model railway ^^^^r line which takes its name from the State, but which long since extended itself nearly ^1 over the whole country, many glimpses will be obtained of those natural beauties that have been made famous in story and song. One striking feature of Pennsylvania scenery is its endless variety. The entire State is an alternation of mountain ranges, bold cliffs and towering cones, beautiful rivers, charming fertile valleys and rolling land- scapes, with here and there a gorge or gap through which a water- course takes its way to the sea. Those whose eyes are familiar only with the broad prairies of the Mississippi valley or the great plains of the West, will be filled with new emotions upon ob- taining a first view of this ever-changing panorama in passing over the Penn- sylvania route. The wild and rugged appearance of the mountains, the loftiness of their peaks, and the dense growth of timber covering their sides, is sud- denly contrasted with a glimpse of the broad Susquehanna and rich, highly cultivated farms. The principal rivers of Pennsylvania are almost as well known as the "Father of Waters" in the West. Who has not heard of the Schuylkill, the Delaware, the Alleghany, the Susquehanna, and the beautiful Juniata? And equally world-wide is the fame of such valleys as the Wyoming, the Chester, and the Cumberland. Nor have the beauties of nature been left unimproved by the hand of man. The State teems with a large population, which has covered its surface, particularly along the railways and canals, with great cities and flourishing towns. No pen description can do adequate justice to the surface appearance of the Keystone State, a section of the Union which all Americans will find it profitable and enjoyable to behold before searching for pleasure in the Old World. To the New Englander the State of Pennsylvania is as much of a surprise as it can be to the farmer from Missouri or Kansas. He finds Philadelphia considerably larger than Boston ; he sees colleges, churches, and schools in every direction, which equal those he left at home ; he crosses rivers much wider and longer than the Connecticut or Penobscot ; he disco,vers that the Green Mountains are a row of hills by the side of the Alleghanies; and he looks with 3 (25) 26 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. wonder, if not astonishment, upon the coal and iron mining operations. Railway trains run into the sides of lofty mountains; they pass under ranges of mountains; they scale their very tops, and run up and down the sides of the steepest with no apparent friction. The feats of railway engineering which have been accomplished in Pennsylvania are second only to those we read of in the Andes of South America, the Alps of Switzerland, or the Rockies of Colorado. Mill Creek, Penna. Railroad. But this State is not all mountains, mines, and railways. Portions of it, as in the vicinity of Harrisburg, York, and Philadelphia, seem as if the'garden spot of the Union. The farms are immensely productive ; the barns are large and bursting ; the dwellings handsome, modern and commodious. If Pennsylvania were in Europe it would rank as a first-class kingdom, the envy of its neighbors. At various points in the State adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad, are many natural curiosities of considerable note. In the neighborhood of Lewistown, a beautifully located spot, are several curious caves. Alexander's, in Kishicoquillas Valley, PENNSYLVANIA RESORTS. 27 abounds in fine stalagmites and is a natural ice-house, preserving in the midst of summer the ice formed in winter. Hanewall's Cave near McVeytown is of vast dimensions, and contains calcareous concretions. Near Tyrone is Sinking Spring Valley and the creek from which it takes its name. This creek emerges from the Arch Spring, and then proceeds to lose itself again and again as it flows onward. Some of the pits through which it is visible are several hundreds of feet in ^ depth. Many of these ^z'l^^ - . _, openings are seen along the sunken stream, which at length appears upon the surface for a short distance. It then enters a large cave, through which it flows in a chan- nel about twenty feet wide for a distance of more than three hun- dred yards, when the cave widens, the creek turns, and is plunged into a cavern where the waters are whirled and churned with terrific force. Sticks and long pieces of timber are im- mediately carried out of sight, but where they go has never been as- certained — no outlet for the waters having been discovered. This curi- osity is much visited by parties from the neigh- boring resort, Altoona. Another peculiar forma- tion is "Jack's Narrows" near Mt. Union, made by the river forcing it- self through Jack's Mountain. This gorge is wild and rugged in its appearance, the sides being almost destitute J ^( k to Nariowfe, Peniid R^uhoad. of vegetation, exposing immense masses of gray and sombre rock. The mountain receives its name from a weird, mysterious hunter and Indian slayer, who made his haunts in the valley previous to the Revolutionary War. The Narrows were called in early Colonial records, "Jack Anderson's Narrows," from the fact that in them an Indian trader named John An- derson and his two servants were murdered by the savages. 28 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. Some of the finest scenery in Pennsylvania is in the Alleghany Valley, partaking of the peculiarities of the " beautiful river " of the early French explorers. This stream is remark- able in many respects. By means of French Creek and Le Boeuf Lake, and Conewango Creek and Chautauqua Lake on the northwest it almost touches Lake Erie; on the northeast it stretches out its long arms towards the Genesee River in New York and the north branch of the Susquehanna, while on the south it pours its waters through the Ohio and Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. For the greater part of its course it flows, not through a broad valley like most rivers, but in a great ravine, from one hundred to four hundred feet below the level of the adjacent country. The scenery is in some places of the wild and rugged sort, but more generally is picturesque and beautiful. The hills though steep are clothed with a dense forest, pre- senting the appearance of vast verdant walls washed at their base by the limpid waters. There are no rocks, strictly speaking, in the channel. But the most famous portion perhaps of the Keystone State, is the valley of the Schuylkill, through which runs the Philada. and Reading Railroad. The praises of this beautiful river and its flowery banks were sung by the poet Moore, who many years ago occupied a lowly cottage near what is now Fairmount Park. The valley is also historically famous for having been Alleghany River at Freeport: the SCene of SOme of the darkest episodes of the Revolution. Here, amid the snows of December, Washington with his little army of frozen, barefooted patriots was threatened with attack by the British com- mander, Howe, and his force of 14,000 redcoats. Skirmishers were frequently out, but on the i6th of that month the invaders began to draw in their lines, evidently satisfied that their opponents were too strong. Finally both armies went into winter quarters, Howe at Phila- delphia and Washington at Valley Forge down the river. Among the Generals in pur army FENNS YL VA NIA RESOR TS. 29 there was quite a discussion as to whether quarters should be taken up at Reading, York, or Carlisle, and the result is thus stated by one of the poets of that or a later period : " But Washington decided When all had spoken rouhd, That Valley Forge, in Chester, Should be our winter ground." Near here is Phoenixville, a prettily situa- ted town, which has the honor of having produced the iron of which the dome of the j capitol at Washington was made. Norris- | town, Pottsville andReading, three of the important inland towns of the State, are also situated in this Valley. The original line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad extended only between the Iwo : cities from which it is named — a distance [ of 58 miles — but the road now comprises, including branches and leased lines, over 1500 miles of track. It runs through valleys and up mountains, in all diiec tions, and embraces some of the finest scenery to be found anywhere. It aKo forms in connection with the Cential Railroad of New Jersey, the popular Bound Brook Route between Philadel- phia and New York. Lovers of the picturesque find enough to interest them in the vicinity of Reading, and further on near Quakake Junction the Railroad climbs inclined planes up the sides of the highest mountain, affording views of land- scape unsurpassed in extent and beauty Here we see the typical American forest in all its wildness. Beyond, across the narrow valleys, is Catawissa creek, rolling and lashing along its rocky channel. The summer resorts of Pennsylvania ^ Glimpse of the schuyik.ii. are not for the most part to be classed as fashionable resorts such as are sought by those votaries of the giddy goddess who go abroad in summer to dress and dance and to keep up the dizzy whirl in which they have lived all winter at home in the city. But for those who desire rest and change, with pure air and the enjoyment of nature, they are peculiarly adapted. Altoona. Few places in Pennsylvania present more genuine attractions, considering both health and pleasure, than this. Situated at the head of Logan Valley, on the main line of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad and on the western slope of the Allegheny mountains, it possesses many special advantages in the variety and extent of its surrounding attractions and the number of inter- 3° OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. esting objective points for drives or short trips by rail. Altoona is the Summit City of Penn- sylvania, being 1200 feet above the level of the sea and in an atmosphere of unusual purity, under the influence of which asthmatic sufferers and the victims of hay fever, in many cases, find immediate and complete relief. The scenery of the locality is of the most varied descrip- tion and presents, within a radius of a few miles, a gradual transition from the graceful and picturesque to the rugged and sublime. A short distance west is the famous " Horseshoe Curve." The valley here separates into two chasms, but by a grand curve, the sides of which Logan House, Altoona. are for some distance parallel with each other, the road crosses both ravines on a high em- bankment, cuts away the point of the mountain dividing them, and sweeps around and up the stupendous western wall. Looking eastward from the curve, the view is peculiarly im- pressive, while at Allegrippus, where the majesty of the mountains seems to culminate, the vast hills in successive ranges roll away in billowy swells to the far horizon, the prospect being only bounded by the power of vision. Twice each day during the summer open " observation cars" are attached to the day express trains, and make the round trip between Cresson and Altoona, enabling passengers to see with ease and pleasure the unsurpassed scenery of the AUeghanies. rE/VNSYLVA/V/A J^ESOKTS. ^I Opportunity is afforded for another pleasing diversion by the vicinity on the north of the Wopsononoc mountain, easily accessible to carriages, from whose summit is spread before the eye a panoramic view which is, in the opinion of experienced travellers, unsurpassed upon either continent in all those features which delight and inspire. It comprises the entire valley of the '^ Blue Juniata," a picture of highly-cultivated farms and smiling peace and plenty, bounded by swelling ranges of hills, which gradually fade away in the azure of the distant horizon. The celebrated " Sinking Spring Valley," with its subterranean streams and im- mense caverns, lies to the eastward, while on the southeast is the Bell's Gap Narrow-Gauge Railroad, excursions by which, to the summits of the mountain, are among the most satisfac- toryand popular diversions of life at Altoona. The views in this locality are less extended and open. The valleys become huge ravines, from which the hills rise on either side almost precipitously. The grade of the road rises one hundred and fifty feet to the mile, and as the diminutive trains creep up and along the sides of the vast amphitheatre of living green, the scene is such as to defy the power of pen description. To the facilities of the Logan House for supplying the "creature comforts" no elaborate allusion is necessary. The building itself, surrounded by broad piazzas, is elegant in all its appointments and provided with all conveniences, including electric bells. The elevated site, charming surroundings, delightful air, and convenience of access combine to render it one of the most desirable resorts in the State. The large and beautifully shaded lawn affords a fine field for croquet and other outdoor sport, while within ten-pin alleys, billiard tables, etc., provide ample facilities for recreation. All the mountain streams in the vicinity abound in trout, rendering the locality a paradise for the angler. Altoona is but eight hours' ride from Philadelphia and Baltimore, nine from Washington, ten from New York, and three from Pittsburgh. Passengers from these points are assured of transportation facilities of the most perfect character, via the Pennsylvania and Northern Central Railroads. The traveller by this line who regales himself at the Logan House, on his journey, will see conspicuously painted upon the wall of the great dining-room, a picture representing, in all the gorgeousness of savage dress, Logan, the famous Mingo chief, whose name is associated with the earlier history of the State. B3dford Springs. These springs, situated in Bedford County, one mile from the town of Bedford, enjoy a high reputation for the health-restoring qualities of their waters and the air of the locality. The waters are recommended for a wide range of diseases, including those of the liver, the kidneys, and the skin, and for some of these ailments are pronounced absolute specifics. A distinguished physician, writing to the "Medical Examiner," says: "I have, myself, twice gone to Bedford so prostrated as scarcely to endure the fatigue of the journey, and wholly disqualified for all exertion, and have in both instances returned, at the end of a fortnight or three weeks, restored to my wonted power of labor, and have witnessed similar results in the cases of friends and patients." The springs were discovered in 1S04, and the following year were frequented by persons afflicted with diseases, who encamped in the valley to be near the newly-discovered fountain of health. Not long afterwards accommodations were provided for visitors, and for threescore years they have regularly drawn a large number of health and pleasure seekers. The natural beauty of the valley where the springs burst forth is great, and it seems to have been formed by nature as a retreat for wearied and suffering humanity. High hills surround it, ascended by terraced walks, and from their summits pleasing vistas open. From the elevated position of these springs, among the ranges of the Alleghany Mountains, and the dense forest growth surrounding them, the atmosphere is always deliciously 32 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. cool; and doubtless much of the benefit derived by visitors is owing to the fact that no suffer- ing is experienced from a midsummer sun, and that refreshing sleep can always be enjoyed. Bedford is an old town, and has an interesting history. It was the site of an important fort Bedford Springs. in colonial times, and some of the most illustrious names in American annals are associated with events occurring here towards the close of the eighteenth and in the early years of the tai'To d\r"^-"rd- ^'^ 'f^'^' ^°""^^^ ^^ picturesque-fertile valleys and rugged n.oun! tarns, holding rich deposits of iron-ore, abounding in all directions. PENNSYLVANIA RESORTS. ' ^.X Cresson Springs. Among the Pennsylvania Resorts which have attained great popularity, Cresson stands second to none. It first became famous for the curative properties of its mineral springs and the Exceeding beauty of its surroundings, combining all the attractions of a quiet mountain resort with the advantages of superior medicinal waters, and adding to the enjoyment of both the excellent accommodations and conveniences of the best city hotels. Cresson is located almost on the summit of the AUeghanies, 2300 feet above the level of the sea, in the midst of the most delightful scenery, and while thus affording irresistible attractions for the heat- oppressed and care-worn seeking a quiet retreat where rest and recuperation may be had with- out the sacrifice of personal comfort, it is easy of access from all the great cities, being immediately on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad within a {^^n hours' ride from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, in the East, and Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, In- dianapolis, and Louisville, in the West. Round trip excursion tickets from all points to and from Cresson are on sale at all ticket offices during the season. The mineral springs at Cresson flow from the mountain in the vicinity of the hotel, and it is attested by eminent medical authority that "there are no more valuable medicinal waters in the Union than those of Cresson Springs," The water of one has aperient action, while another possesses decided tonic properties. The alum water is one of the most valuable agents known for loss of tone and vigor to the skin, in general debility, and in all congestive conditions of the skin. In the centre of the hall of the hotel, set up in capacious coolers for the free use of guests, are all the mineral waters of jthe place, with those of Saratoga, Bedford, and Minnequa, The new Mountain House, erected during the fall and winter of 1880-81, on the site of the old hotel, is a very striking structure in the Queen Anne style of architecture, into which is blended the Oriental. It is located on the crest of a hill in the midst of a delightful grove. The main front is 300 feet long, with an elevation of about 100 feet, embracing four stories and basement, with wings extending from each end to a depth of 220 feet. The whole build- ing is surrounded by a covered piazza 16 feet wide, forming a promenade 1200 feet in length. The new hotel, although having accommodations for seven hundred guests, was found inad- equate to accommodate one-half of those desirous of patronizing it last season, and during the past winter it has been enlarged by an extension of the west wing to the dimensions contem- plated in the original plan — the addition containing eighty sleeping-rooms. At the eastern end another wing has been added, containing ten-pin alley and children's dining-room, the room used for the last-named purpose last season having been incorporated in the main dining- room, increasing its seating capacity to fully 800. The hotel itself will accommodate about 900 guests, in addition to which there are 25 cottages in the surrounding grove, providing special accommodations for those seeking seclusion and the perfect quiet of home, while dwelling near enough to the concert and the dance to participate at pleasure. The cottages form a portion of the Mountain House property, and are managed by and under the immediate charge of the hotel officers and servants, meals being served either in the main dining-room of the hotel or at the cottages, as specially arranged. Board walks extend from the main building to all the houses, and the ways are brilliantly lighted at night. As the railroad station is at the foot of the lawn, within a stone's throw of the main entrance, no fatiguing stage or wagon ride at the end of a long journey is necessary in going to or from Cresson. In contrast with the mountain fastnesses all around Cresson the beautiful and extensive grounds about the hotel have a peculiar charm, there being about 400 acres of land in lawns, gardens and groves. The surroundings of the hotel are attractive, and pleasant drives lead away through the almost unbroken forests, where the laurel, the hemlock and the pine afford PENNS YL VA NIA RESOR TS. 35 a delightful shade and fdl the air with the ceaseless rustle of their branches. A mile or so from the house is the Old Portage Road, with its ten inclined planes, by which the Pennsylvania Road originally crossed the mountains. It was once one of the wonders of this continent, but is now abandoned, and is visited only by the curious and the student of our system of internal improvements. Comfortably seated behind one of the fine teams always to be depended on at the livery, connected with the office of the hotel by telephone, the drive over the Old Port- age Road is one of the finest through wild-wood scenery the visitor can take. Ferns and wild flowers grow on all sides, beautiful vistas through the trees greet you at every turn, and the smell of the green spruce and pine foliage, deepened by the dew and borne on the cool air, is delicious. Dela-ware Y/ater Gap, This peculiarly beautiful and picturesque resort is known to tourists far and wide throughout our land. The name " Water Gap" is given to that point in the course of the Delaware river where it forces its way through the Kittatinny or Blue Ridge Mountains. Mounts Minsi and Delaware AA^ater Gap. (36) PE.VNS YL VAN I A RES OR TS. 37 Tammany form the walls of the Gap, their almost precipitous sides rising against the horizon to a height of a thousand feet, approaching each other closely as if in determination to bar the river's course. Indeed, it is believed they did so at one time in the thousands of yqars agone. The Indians gave to the valley north of the Blue Ridge and above the Gap, the name of " Minni- sink," or "Whence the Waters are Gone." "Here," says a writer, "a vast lake once probably extended, and whether the great body of water wore its way through the mountain by a fall like Niagara, or burst through a gorge, or whether the mountains uprose in convulsion upon its margin, it is certain that the Minnisink country bears the mark of aqueous action in its diluvial soil, and in its rounded hills, built of pebbles and boulders." The attractions of the Delaware river, which, above Trenton, is one of the most picturesquely beautiful streams in the United States, culminate at the Water Gap, and form a location equalled by few in the country in its adaptation to the purpose of health and pleasure. An organiza- tion of gentlemen from New York and Philadelphia, yclept the " Minsi Pioneers," through a long course of systematic and well-directed labor, have opened a great number of paths and rambles upon the mountain side, and have thus added a feature to the other attractions of the Gap which is of inestimable value. These rambles are practically exhaustless in fine views and situations, and all along the route are scattered seats and rustic summer-houses for their pleasant contemplation. The summit of Mount Minsi is easily accessible to carriages, and from its narrow crest, scarcely more than fifty feet wide, a panoramic view may be obtained of vast ex- tent and varied and unexcelled beauty. Prominent among the special points of interest, and which afford objective points for a pleasant ramble, are Eureka Glen, famed as the favorite of George W. Childs, and rendered accessible through his liberal expenditures by a succession of rustic bridges and stairways, and Moss Cataract, Diana's Bath, and Caldeno Falls, located on Caldeno Creek, a little stream which takes its rise in the Hunter's Spring, a cool and sequestered spot far up in Minsi Mountain, though quite easily reached by a path. In the social life at the Gap there is none of the gayety and excitement which characterize our sea-side resorts, and there are few allurements for the votaries of fashion. All that is best, however, in representative American people is fairly represented. The daily life and occupa- tion are conspicuous in the absence of all conventional restraints, and are characterized by as much freedom as life in a country farm-house, while, at the same time, the hotel accommo- dations provide all comforts and conveniences. Delaware Water Gap is one hundred and eight miles distant from Philadelphia, and ninety-two miles from New York. It is reached from the former place by the Belvidere division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and from the latter via the Morris and Essex Railroad. Kane. Located in the wildest portion of Pennsylvania, on the highest summit of the AUeghanies reached by the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, Kane possesses superior attractions for sportsmen and for those who are inclined towards life in the forest, with all the comforts of a good hotel at the same time. Its elevation and dense hemlock and pine forest surroundings give it an atmosphere of peculiar rarity and healthfulness, very beneficial in cases of asthma, hay fever, and other diseases of the respiratory organs. " The country adjacent to this station is celebrated for the production of milk, butter and cheese — the manufacture of the latter article being an important industry, prosecuted on an extensive scale. The markets are abundant — game, mountain trout, and the luscious fruits of the forest being obtainable in any quantities when in season. Sulphur and iron springs burst forth near the hotel, and throughout all the region limpid streams and pools abound, filled with the speckled trout so attractive to fishermen, and in some of which the breeding and rearing of these beauties is scientifically 1 U^J PENNSYLVANIA RESORTS. carried on. The forests, almost interminable in extent, are intersected with good dry roads carpeted by the ca°<- he ^y^. "^"t -ere crossing the swollen river L uth i't T TT"''- ' "'«''" '° ''"' "''^'" '•''=''; hut I was in a manner stunned, and look d '°7r'""^ *' ™='"^" "' "''= ^«"- " ™= "°' "■"" I came on Table Rock and looked-great heavens! on what a fall of bright green water-that it came upon me in NATURAL WONDERS. 40 its full might and majesty. Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart, an image of beauty, to remain there changeless and indelible until its pulses cease to beat forever. I think in every quiet season now, still do those waters roll and leap and roll and tumble all day long ; still are the rainbows spanning them a hundred feet below. Still, when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or seem to crumble away like the front of a great chalk cliff, or roll down the rock like dense white smoke. But always does the mighty stream appear to die as it comes down, and always from the unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid." Niagara Falls are situated on the Niagara River, nearly midway between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. About a mile above the cataract the river is one continuation of rapids, which finally terminate in a perpendicular fall of 164 feet on the American side and 158 on the Canadian. Goat Island, a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile in length, extends to the very brow of the precipice, dividing the falls into two portions, the higher of which is on the American side, while the greater width is on the Canada side. The volume of water which constantly pours over this immense precipice and the power with which it sweeps everything before it is appalling. No living thing has ever been known to go over and come out of the whirlpool below alive. A pine board floated over soon comes to the surface in .splinters. About fifty years ago a vessel loaded with live animals went over the falls, and such was the eagerness of the sojourners at the hotels to see the sight that many of them jumped up from their dinners and forgot to return to pay their bills. The deep green color of the water and the effect in contrast with the white foam cannot be portrayed with pen, nor scarcely with painter's brush, though Church's famous picture in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington is marvellously near to it. A beautiful bright rainbow rests above the water a few rods below the whirlpool, where the sun's rays are reflected through the mists, and is visible from morn- ing till night in clear weather. Considerable changes have taken place during recent years by the falling down of masses of rock, causing a slight recession of the cataract at some points. Table Rock, once a striking feature on the Canadian side, has wholly disappeared. The chief points of interest to the visitor are Goat Island, reached by a bridge 360 feet long; Luna Island, the Cave of the Winds, a spacious recess beneath and back of the American fall, and the Suspension Bridge below. The old Terrapin Tower, which formerly stood out in the stream, 50 or 100 yards from Goat Island, from which a magnificent view was formerly obtained, became unsafe and was blown up with gunpowder in 1873. ^f ^^*^^ years the owners of property about the falls have fenced in all the approaches and points of interest for the purpose of exacting a charge for viewing them. The Legislature of New York has been considering means of getting control of the property to make it a free park for all time, as it should be. Niagara is reached from New York by the Erie and New York Central Railways, from Boston by the Boston and Albany, from Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania and Northern Central, and from the North and West via the Grand Trunk line. The hotel accommodations are ample and excellent. It is a famous place for bridal couples, being equalled only by Washington in this respect. There is one certain thing, says the author of "Rambles of a Journalist," about Niagara; it can have no rival. Saratoga may become antiquated — the seashore a resort only for invalids. Fashions may change in regard to pleasure resorts. Rival locations may compete by oppos- ing attractions. But Niagara can have no rival. The flood will sweep on over the precipice, the waters will boil and foam, struggle and heave down the rapids, rushing on forever, and the roar of the cataract will be there forever. In all the world there is but one Niagara, and all the world will visit the mighty show. You may build up a city there, make long streets and 5° OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. line them with houses, and crowd them with people; and strip it of the things that nature spread out all around it; you may construct canals and erect machinery, but still the great cataract will be there, and the world will travel hundreds and thousands of miles to see it. They will go to the brow of the precipice to look down., and to the base of the precipice to look up. They will involve themselves in the mist and spray for the sake of gazing upon the rainbow that is above them. They will ramble on Goat Island by moonlight, listening to the roar of the waters, or enjoy its cool and pleasant shades at noonday. You may roll your great water-wheels in their ceaseless rounds ; you may harness your machinery and set your great hammers in motion ; your hundred strong hands may hurl the ponderous sledge against the ringing anvil ; you may set your ten thousand puny machinists at pounding the iron and driving the spikes ; make all the noise you can — and the roar of the cataract will drown it all. The Caverns of Luray. The now famous Luray Cave in Virginia is a comparatively recent discovery, its existence having been first learned on the 13th of August, 1878, and not made publicly known until some time thereafter. The conical hill on the Newmarket pike, about a mile from the village Virgin Font. of Luray, in Page County, had long been known as Cave Hill, from the existence of a small cave near its summit ; but the significance of certain sink-holes and standing ponds along its sides and about its base was not understood or suspected until a short time previous to the date above named. Mr. B. P. Stebbins, a photographer from Easton, Md., appeared in the locality, and, conceiving the view from surface indications, that a cave lay beneath the hill, induced several of the villagers to join him in the search for it. Together they went prospect- ing about the country, digging here and there, without success, until they were nicknamed "cave-hunters," and became the objects of good-natured ridicule. Their fellow-townsmen NA TL 'RA L WONDERS. 51 declared they were mistaking rabbits' holes for mare's nests and jumping rabbits for sprightly young colts. But finally the right hole was explored, and a depression in the hillside proved to be the entrance to the long-sought cave. One of the party— which now consisted only of Mr. Stebbins and Messrs. A. J. and Wm. B. Campbell— was lowered by means of a rope into the pit, and found himself in a narrow rift about fifteen feet long by five wide, with no appa- rent outlet. Closer examination disclosed a hole, through which, with some difficulty, he Cathedral and Hall of Giants. passed into a large open space, now known as Entrance Hall. Having abandoned the rope which connected him with his companions, he surveyed for some time with rapt mterest the strange scene presented to his sight. The rest of the party becoming alarmed at his absence, another of their number was lowered in search of him. Together they returned to the upper world, and at night the party resumed their explorations with candles, getting as far as Muddy Lake— then a considerable body of water, since drair^ed and replaced by a dry Curious Stalactite Growthi. cement walk — by which they were stopped and left in ignorance of the largest and grandest part of the cave. These, briefly condensed from Prof. Ammen's work, are the circumstances of the discovery of this great natural wonder. About two years later the property passed into the hands of the Luray Cave and Hotel Company, identical in interest with the Shenan- doah Valley Railway Company, by whom numerous improvements have been made looking to the attraction and comfort of visitors. A handsome cottage has been built over the mouth of the cave, through which entrance is made, and in the interior cement •walks, plank platforms, stairways, and railings have been provided wherever needed. The tallow can- dles formerly employed to illuminate the cave have been replaced with thirteen electric lights. Entering the cave one is possessed of the feeling of having passed into a new state of being. Queer shapes present themselves at every turn, aping grotesquely the things of our past experience. Every object sug- gests some growth of animal or vege- table life, yet every resemblance proves illusive. There are glittering stalactites and fluted columns strong enough to bear a world ; draperies in broad folds and a thousand tints; cascades of snow-white stone; and, beyond, a background of pitchy darkness in which the imagination locates more than the eye can see. But shortly the visitor begins to ex- amine the objects more closely. First to attract attention is Washington's column, a fluted massive stalagmite about twenty-five feet in diameter by thirty in height, reaching from floor to ceiling. Stalactites depend on every side. From the centre of the roof one descends as aptly as if na- ture had designed it to support a chandelier. Passing on through En- trance Avenue there is seen a rounded NATURAL WONDERS. 53 bank of dip-stone, fringed beneath with semblances of dangling legs. Further on is the Flower Garden, a space inclosed with natural stalagmitic border and containing bulb-shaped stalagmites resembling bunches of asparagus, cauliflower, cabbages, etc., according to one's fancy. Beyond this is the Fish Market, where are distinctly seen hanging rows of fish — black bass, silver perch, mackerel, and, as the guide facetiously calls them, "rock" fish, and other varieties. The Smithsonian report says there is no difficulty about identifying the various species, some being gray all over, others having black backs and white bellies. The Elfin Ramble is a vast open plateau, estimated to be 500 feet in length by 300 in breadth. Still further on is Pluto's Chasm, the rift through which the god is supposed to have borne. Proser- pine to the under world. It yawns in a startling way, attaining a depth of seventy-five feet and a length of 500. At the bottom is the Spectre, a tall, white, fluted stalactite, covered about the upper part with a fringe of snowy draperies, and suggesting a meditative ghost. But it would not be possible in this brief article to describe in detail all the fantastically curious formations within this cave. There is the Crystal Lake, the Virgin Font, the Frozen Fountain, the Organ, the Ball Room, and a hundred other varied shapes and places, all carved out of the blue limestone by the action of natural elements. Large areas, embracing some of the most wonderful parts of the cave,. are not yet opened to the public. To quote still further from Prof. Ammen : "It is a task of recognized difficulty to describe the indescribable. This difficulty is enhanced, if possible, in the case of cave scenery, by the fact that the impressions it leaves upon the mind of the beholder differ, not so much in degree as in kind, from those of his past experience. A new order of sensations, ideas, and emotions demands a new vocabulary. The visitor who attempts a description must content himself, therefore, with seeking to impart his enthusiasm without hoping to fully trace its causes." The electric light heightens wonderfully the contrasts of light and shade, upon which cave scenery so much depends for its striking character. Under its glow the whiter formations shine with the lustre of pearl white, while the amber tints of the older and darker ones are changed for the color of gold. "There are," says one writer, "in these combinations of the picturesque with the statuesque, resemblances approaching at times the most advanced qualities of the sculptor's highest art. Indeed, it needs but a little play of the imagination to people these dusky cham- bers with conservatories rich with crystallized leaves and blossoms, with canopies of snow and ice, with crystal streamlets over which the glistening nymphs hum their peaceful tunes." It is impossible to estimate correctly the age of the cave or its formations. The rate of growth of cave formations varies with a score of circumstances, so that no general rule can be inva- riably applied. A tumbler standing five years under the drip of a stalactite was incrusted to the depth of an eighth of an inch. At this rate of growth, supposing all the conditions to be exceptionally favorable, a column one foot in diameter might be formed in two hundred and forty years. Under ordinary circumstances, however, it would perhaps require several thousands, some reckoners say tens of thousands of years. Dr. Porter, of Lafayette College, a distinguished scientist, in a recent lecture, quotes an eminent brother scientist as saying, concerning the Fallen Column, a gigantic formation weighing one hundred and seventy tons, that " four thousand years must have passed since its fall, and seven millions of years were consumed in its formation." This calculation is based upon the probable time which, in his opinion, it took to grow the vertical stalactites which have formed upon it as it lies. Luray is on the line of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. To reach it from New York, Philadelphia, and the North and West take the Pennsylvania Railroad. From Baltimore take the Western Maryland Railroad. ' From Cincinnati and the South and Southwest take the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. 54 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. Watkins' Glen. A FEW years ago but little was known of this picturesque and'interesting resort beyond the confines of the county in which it is located. To-day it is renowned the world over for its wonderful scenery, and is annually visited by thousands of tourists, excursionists, and trav- ellers from this and foreign countries. The village of Watkins, containing about three thousand inhabitants, is beautifully situated at the head or southern extremity of Seneca Lake, within the shadow of Glen Mountain. Seneca Lake is oue of the most beautiful sheets of water in the world. It is entirely framed about with '' precipitous, black, jagged rocks " and clean pebbly beaches. There is not a rod of swamp in its whole circumference, consequently it breeds no malaria, no mosquitoes. Excursions upon the lake to its many points of interest, in addi- tion to the attractions of the Glen have made Watkins one of the most popular resorts in the country. The Glen is simply a vertical rift or gorge in a rocky bluff, some five or six hundred feet in height, through which rushes a mountain brook of purest water — now roaring and tumb- ling over rocks in foaming cas- cades, again plunging over ledges in beautiful falls, and anon eddy- ing about in quiet little lakelets in the deep ravine, down upon which from high rugged crags or rustic little bridges the tourist may look and meet his or her face in the water. The Glen is divided into sections, each of which is given a distinctive name in accord with some one of its many beautiful or strange and wonderful features. The division at the entrance, which is only a quarter. of a mile from the sta- tion, is named Glen Alpha, and the section at the terminus, about three miles above, is called Glen Omega. A short distance above the entrance to Glen Alpha, a narrow but safe bridge crosses the chasm, from which an excellent view is obtained of Minnehaha Falls, one of the prettiest cascades in the Glen. Farther up, at a point where the high and rugged walls draw close together, is Cavern Cascade, where the water falls over the rocks into a gloomy basin. The tourist has, for some distance up to this point been traversing a narrow footpath cut out of the face of the cliff. He now leaves this path and climbs the long staircase which crosses the chasm, and ascends Mammotli Gorge. NA TURAL WONDERS. 55 for fifty feet at an angle of ninety degrees to another footpath on the other side of the Glen. From this point the path leads around moss-covered boulders, along steep rocky slopes and ledges, up a succession of stairways crossing from side to side, until by an ever upward climbing other pathways are gained, pursuing which the stairway is reached which leads to the Mountain House, perched on a shelf quite overhanging the gorge. The gloomy division beginning at this point is called Glen Obscura, passing through which and by the Sylvan Rapids, across a bridge to the other side of the Glen the narrow gorge expands into an enormous amphitheatre, to which has been given the name of Glen Cathedral. Of the many remarkable chambers the Cathedral is, perhaps, the most imposing. It is an immense arena a thousand feet long with walls of solid rock rising perpendicularly to a height of three hundred feet, while the floor is almost as level as if it had been paved by human hands. Into this mighty chasm the waters spring with a fright- ful headlong leap, bathing the sides with feathery spray, then quietly spreading over the rocky floor form the lovely pool of the Nymphs. From the north side of the Cathedral, the Grand Staircase, thrown across the ravine to a higher shelf of the cliffs, leads to the Glen of Pools. Beyond the Glen of Pools is the Giant's Gorge, at the upper end of which Rainbow Falls, one of the most interesting and beautiful features of the Glen, is reached. The path passes behind the fall and leads up another stairway to the Shadow Gorge, at the head of which, by a pathway cut in the sides of the rugged rocks, Pluto Falls are reached. Here the waters pour down from a rocky parapet into a deep, dark basin. The especial points of interest between this spot and Glen Omega, are Glen Arcadia, Arcadian Falls, Elfin Gorge, Glen Facility, Glen Horicon, Glen Elysium, and Omega Falls. Besides the points and objects mentioned, there are a hundred others in this marvellous Glen, each possessing particular features of inter- est—spots where hours may be spent in watching the restless waters pouring down from rocky heights, leaping over huge boulders, or sweeping across smooth beds of shining pebble. The atmosphere in the Glen, even in the hottest day, is cool and moist. Watkins is reached from Baltimore via the Northern Central Railroad ; from New York and the West by the Erie Railroad to Elmira, and thence via the Northern Central, or by the New York Central to Seneca Lake, and thence by steamer to the village. Artist's Dream. iiiliilllllililiiliillliiiilililiililiiiisa (56)* " Here mountain on mountain exultingly throws, Through storm, mist, and snow, its bleak crags to the sky ; In their shadows the sweets of the valley repose, While streams, gay with verdure and sunshine, steal by." OUNTAINS are symbols of grandeur and sublimity. They have been called " God's eternal sentinels," because more than all else in nature they bring man to a contemplation of his own littleness and the awful extent of infinite power. No man can behold the aspects of a nobly-uplifted pinnacle or dome without realizing that his thought is expanded, unchained and newly-gifted. From the earliest dates in the world's chronology mountains have comrnanded the supremest worship and admiration, and profoundly symbolized noted epochs in the panorama of history and events. To use the words of Professor Winchell : " There is more in mountains than the novelty of the outlook from their summits. They stir the higher susceptibilities of the intellect by their magnitude, their loftiness, their grandeur, and the rugged unapproachableness of their peaks." They fire the soul with a spirit of veneration — they are the symbols of eternity and boundless power. They are the homes of frost, and silence, and mystery — the brows which bear the wreath of the clouds — the eyries of the lightning and the thunder — the palaces of infinite greatness and majesty. Every lover of nature is a lover of the mountains, and every student of science and natural wonders finds a workshop and a study amid their rocks and crevices. The botanist finds there his rarest flowers and plants, and the geologist his most valuable specimens. The pleasure traveller and health-seeker find in the mountains the rarest air, the sublimest scenery, the most enjoyable exercise, and in many cases the greatest benefits. Those who have lived among mountains are seldom contented elsewhere, and those who once spend a vacation in them look eagerly forward to another. He who first met the highlands swelling blue. Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue; Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace." The mountains of our own land embrace every degree, from the " green hills " of Vermont to the picturesque Catskills, the wild Adirondacks and Alleghanies, the beautiful Blue Ridge and the lofty snow-capped Rockies and Sierras. While no writer can ever hope to poeti- cally create another Ararat, Sinai, Calvary, Pindus, Olympus or Parnassus, the time will certainly come when the fame and influence of our noted earth-giants, with their incomparable forests, and waterfalls, and domes, and lakes, will outrank and eclipse even that of the Alps, the Apennines, the Cevennes, the Vosges^ and the Cote d'Or. Colorado. Owing to the extent and grandeur of its mountain scenery, Colorado ranks first among the mountain regions of our country. The whole State is one vast summer resort, or tourists' home, and the stream of sight-seers, pleasure and health-seekers, which annually flows into it, grows larger year by year. This region has been frequently called the '"'Switzerland of America;" but there are so many localities to which this term has been applied, that it scarcely conveys its full meaning. By the concurrent testimony of travellers, the scenery of the Rocky Mountains is not inferior to that of the world-famed Alpine region in Europe. Yet there are points of difference, chiefly in the surpassing magnitude and grandeur of these 5 (57) (58) MOUNTAIN RESORTS. immense Rockies and the wonderful canons among them, whose unique and even fantastic formations are unequalled anywhere in the universe. These river canons or deeply-cut ravines, that are found in all the more elevated portions of Colorado, constitute a peculiar and striking feature of the great Rocky Moun- tain system. In the countless ages of the past, the waters of the streams have worn channels deep down into the hearts of the mountains, leaving the perpendicular granite or sandstone standing on either side for hundreds, and in some localities thousands, of feet. Nowhere are the grand and wonderful in nature more effectually illustrated than in these mountains and caiions. There are no less than fifteen peaks in the State, each with an altitude but little below that of Mt. Blanc; and, in extent of surface, one of these great peaks exceeds the entire area of Switzerland. To gain some idea of the extent of Colorado scenery, let it be remembered that the State is larger than Great Britain, comprisingan areaof 67,42o,oooacres, of which one-third only is grazing or agri- cultural territory, while the rsmainder is the vast upheaval known as the Rocky Mountains, the ''back-bone of the continent," describ- ing a tortuous course north and south through the State, which ''covers more outdoors" than any other State in the Union except Cali- fornia and Texas. This vast area lies between the thirty-seventh and forty-first parallels of north latitude, and the one hundred and second and ^ one hundred and ninth meridians of west'longitude. Its average extent, north and south, is 275 miles, and east and west 380 miles, the total area being 104,500 miles. Approaching Colorado from the east, the traveller makes a gradual ascent after leaving the Missouri River, and the eastern border of the State is crossed at an elevation of 4000 feet In the central part of Colorado the mountains form four vast basins, called parks,— North Park, South Park, Middle Park, and San Luis Park. North Park, with its area of 2500 square miles, at an elevation of about 9000 feet, has a north-central location. Just south of North Park ,s Middle Park, with its area of 3000 square miles, at an elevation of 8500 feet 59 Winnie's Grotto -NA^al Is 2000 feet high. Still 6o OUR A AI ERIC AN RESORTS. south of Middle Park is South Park, with its area of 2200 square miles, at an elevation of 9500 feet. The fourth Park, San Luis, is near the south line of the State, has an area of 8000 square miles and an elevation of 7000 feet. In these parks are numerous small lakes, besides many beautiful streams and mineral springs, which are becoming popular resorts. The now famous Twin Lakes in Middle Park are, with a single exception, the highest bodies of water in North America. Some of the numerous summer residents of the locality have provided themselves with sail- boats, and enjoy the novelty of yachting at an elevation of 11,000 feet. Hunting and fish- ing have also been boun- tifully indulged in by tourists fond of these sports. Game was, a few years ago, very plen- tiful, especially in North Park, which was the na- tural herding-ground of thousands of elk, ante- lope, deer, and moun- tain-sheep ; but their numbers are becoming considerably diminish- ed, though the pursuit is still sufficiently reward- ed to give zest to the sport. The Earl of Dun- raven, in his very fas- cinating account of a hunting season in Colo- rado, thus sums up his impressions: "In spring and summer the scenery and climate are very different. Ice and snow and withered grass have passed away, and every- thing is basking and sun, hot, but always Running the Rapids. Colorado Kiver. tempered with a COol breeze. Waterfowl frequent the lakes, the whole earth is green, and the margins of the streams are luxuriant with a profuse growth of wild flowers and rich herbage. The air is scented with the sweet-smelling sap of the pines, whose branches welcome many feathered visitors from southern climes; an occasional humming-bird whirrs among the shrubs, trout leap in the creeks, and all nature is active and exuberant with life." The mountains of Colorado are drained chiefly by the Rio Grande, the Arkansas and the MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 6i Platte rivers. The latter runs through the valley in which Denver is situated ; and, though this is said to be a country where rain seldom falls, and where agriculture is only possible by irrigation, it has several times gone on the rampage and caused great damage. The glories of Platte Cafion and the Grand Canon of the Arkansas have been most written about, but the walls of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers, in the western part of the State, are far more massive and wonderful. In many sections they rise without a break or an incline to heights of thousands of feet, and along the Colorado con- tinue in that way with hard- ly an outlet of any kind for hundreds of miles. Major Powell, of the United States Geological Survey, gives, in the report of his explorations of this river, the only graphic account of its wonders ever printed. The Grand Canon of the Gunnison is another of the world's wonders. Its walls on either side of the stream, and bordering it for miles, are usually not far from 300 feet in width and are com- posed of stratified rock. In places their perpendic- ular sides, rising from the water from one to three thousand feet, terminate in level summits surmounted by a second wall of prodi- gious height, thus forming a canon within a caiion. Through the chasm be- tween these giant forma- tions and huge bastions and turrets, one above an- other, dashes the river, its surface white with foam. Outside of Denver, usu- ally the first point visited by all tourists, the chief places Swallow Cave, Colorado River. of interest and the ones most convenient and accessible, are : Colorado Springs, Manitou and surroundings, Boulder Caiion, Greeley, Idaho Springs, Georgetown and vicinity. Central City, Pagosa Springs and the Parks. Of course the mountain scenery is everywhere, and mining operations, of interest to many, are to be seen in every part of the State. The beautiful city of Denver, with its progressive spirit and metropolitan appearance, is doubly attractive after the long journey across the plains, and the fascination of first sight is increased on closer ac- ■ ■mimiMW^M 62 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. quaintance. There is a dash and animation about the place, with a finish and elegance that suggest prosperity, wealth and stability quite as much as the aggressive frontier. Denver is the best built city between St. Louis and San Francisco, and its growth at the present time is more rapid, and its prospects more brilliant, than any other city in the whole country. Its population is now about 70,000. The city is built mainly on ground sloping slightly towards the mountains, which rise so grandly along the entire western horizon, the line of vision taking in the "snowy range" and its outlying foot-hills for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. The streets are broad, solid and cleanly, and are lined in all directions by mas- sive blocks, elegant residences, green lawns and handsome shade trees. The city is well provided with hotels, most of them first-class. The Windsor, the newest, largest and best, is equal to any in the whole country. Except for a few of the hottest days, Denver is a de- lightful place during the entire summer. Those who prefer a more rural retreat for a portion of the time go out to the Springs or to Greeley. At the latter place excellent ac- commodations are found at the Oasis Hotel. Nearly all tourists make Denver headquarters and plan their trips in different directions from that point. The next place in import- ance, especially from the tourist's standpoint, is Colorado Springs, the most beautifully located, cleanest and cosiest appearing place in the State. Near here is Manitou, known as the "Saratoga of the West," and within a radius of five or six miles are some of the most interesting features of Colorado scenery. At Manitou, which is situated just at the opening of the Pike's Peak trail, are located the most famous mineral springs in this re- gion. The waters are strongly charged with carbonic acid and contain carbonates of soda, lime and magnesia in various proportions. Broad claims are made for the medicinal pro- perties of these waters, the opinions of profes- sors of chemistry being quoted to the effect that they excel the "Ems" and the "Spa," two of the most famous groups in Europe. The elevation of this locality is higher than that of Denver, or a little over 6700 feet. There are splendid drives in all directions, and within a radius of seven or eight miles are numerous attractions and points of special interest, includ- ing the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Ute Pass, and Monument Park. The formations from which the latter takes its name are among the greatest curiosities to be seen in Colorado. Pen cannot well describe them. They consist of a series of curiously-shaped natural monuments which have been formed from sandstone rock solely by the action of the elements, a thin Mary's Veil, Upper Falls on Pine Creek. MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 63 Stratum of iron on the top having protected these particular pieces and preserved them. No accurate estimate can be made of the hundreds of years this work of nature has been in prog- ress. There are perhaps two hundred of the peculiar formations of different sizes and shapes, some of which are really fantastic, the whole covering an area of five hundred acres, in the midst of a perfect natural park. The Garden of the Gods is also a remarkable freak of nature, partaking somewhat more of the grand and imposing. It is a secluded spot, hemmed in by great rocks stood up on edge and on end. They are some of the more marked of the numerous evidences on every hand here of a grand upheaval some time in the past. These tremendous copper-colored slabs loom- ing up, some of them 350 feet high, are an imposing sight. Some look like enormous pillars; others are cathedral-shaped towers, the whole forming a scene at once weird and enchanting. The tourist in search of either health or pleasure may profitably spend many days or even weeks in the vicinity of Colo- rado Springs and Manitou. The two points are only five miles apart and connected by a narrow-gauge railroad, by which the fare is twenty-five cents for a round trip. The air here is bracing, and there is ample amuse- ment for the lovers of nature in the canons, grottos, mountains, and passes. First of all, there is that giant sentinel, Pike's Peak, tow- ering over plain and foot-hill, the view from whose summit is indescribably grand. Al- though this attains the enormous altitude of 14,147 feet, by following the trail it can be ascended on horseback. On the barren, rocky mountain-top is a government signal- service station. To witness sunrise from this elevated position is an experience long to be remembered, as is the whole day's trip, for it is a laborious and tiresome journey. ' The spectacle of a snow-squall on this Peak in midsummer is a treat, and may be often witnessed from the Garden of the Gods and other points in the range of vision. Though the most famous Peak in Colo- rado, and seen at the greatest distance in all directions. Pike's is not the highest, Gray's Peak, twelve miles above Georgetown, being 200 feet higher. The most entertaining tour to be made in Colorado, and the one embracing the greatest amount and variety of scenery for the time and expenditure required, is from Denver by the Colorado Central Railway, now a part of the Union Pacific system, through Clear Creek Caiion to Georgetown, Idaho Springs, and Central City. These points with their surround- ings furnish material for weeks of pleasant exploration, or they may be hastily seen in two Island Monument, Glen Canyon. (64) Cathedral Rock, Garden of the Gods. days. Picturesque Clear Creek Canon has been often por- trayed, but it must be seen to be ap- preciated. Passing through it is ahnost like going into an immense cave. Its towering peaks and overhanging rocks are high above on either side,sometimes shooting straight up, with walls as perpen- dicular as those of a cavern, and almost shutting out the light of day. To stand on the rear platform of the train affords a grand sight, and to see the panting little iron horse twisting around in the crev- ices of the rocks, as it were, often ap- parently turning around to come back at you, is a most no- vel and exhilarating railroad experience. Idaho Springs are reached soon after emerging from the canon. Though not as noted in the world of fashion as 'Mani- tou, these springs are probably the best in Colorado, and the air of the locality is a perfect tonic, une- qualled anywhere. A (ew miles distant are those noted re- sorts, Chief Moun- tain and Chicago Lake, the latter being the highest body of MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 65 still water in North America. The drive over the mountain to Central City, a distance of six miles, is a most enjoyable trip. Sixteen miles be- yond Idaho Springs, situated almost in the heart of the moun- tains, fifty-two miles from Denver, is Georgetown. It is not only picturesque in appearance, but unique, and will strike the new-comer from the East as wholly unlike any- thing he has ever seen before. All around are curiosi- ties and places of interest. There are drives and walks un- surpassed, with lakes, and mines to visit and mountain peaks to climb. In the sides of the steep moun- tain around and above the town, tun- nels and shafts with- out number have been dug in the ea- ger search for gold and silver, both of which have been ob- tained in the locality. Gray's Peak, one of the four highest in the whole range, is only twelve miles dis- tant. Tourists usu- ally make the trip to it on horseback, and those who wish to Devil's Gate, Vicinity of Georgetown. enjoy it to the best advantage, and to save themselves unnecessary fatigue, take a part of two days for it, spending the night at a cottage at the foot of the mountain. By this means the ascent can be made in early morning, always the best time. It is a hard climb up the narrow winding trail, where to look back makes one's head swim, and where a misstep or a stumble would precipitate horse and rider down the terrible 66 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. rocky incline to almost certain destruction. But the magnificence of the scene repays many times over the labor and risk of reaching it. This cold stony summit points up through the clouds 14,351 feet above the sea level, and in the hottest days of August one requires extra wraps while standing upon it. Looking down hundreds of feet below may be seen immense snow-banks which the summer's sun has failed to dissolve. Resting over the tops of lower mountains are seen great white clouds, which from above, with the sunlight shining on them, also look like sheets of snow. For hundreds of miles in every direction mountain peak after mountain peak meets the view, snow-capped and rock-bound, "grand, gloomy and peculiar." In the clear rarefied atmosphere there is almost no limit to one's vision with a good field- glass. Denver lies 60 miles to the south. Pike's Peak, 150 miles distant, appears to be scarcely a gunshot away. South Park seems to be almost at your feet, while ranges of moun- tains in Wyoming and New Mexico are plainly visible. One of the most noted mountains of Colorado — the Mount of the Holy Cross, so called because of the cross- shaped snow-lines always vis- ible near its summit — is also readily seen. Victor Hugo tells us that "every condition has its instinct," and he who finds himself for the first time face to face with the Rocky Mountains has an appalling sense that he has not only overrated his individual im- portance in nature's econo- my, but has likewise under- valued the influence of inar- ticulate nature upon himself. Nothing can transcend the majesty of these snow-capped mountains! You gaze upon them in mute wonder until you grow abstracted and out of self into the idea of perpetual greatness. You do not think— only feel — and somehow the Eastern world that you have left behind, with its glitter and gloom, its envious struggles and manifold defects, fades into insig- nificance in view of this endless range of divine architecture, and you are for once an humble worshipper at the pure shrine of sublimity. Three miles up a mountain gulch above Georgetown is what is known as Green Lake. It is a large basin, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, filled with water 75 feet deep, almost as cold as ice, and of a greenish hue. The lake is half a mile long by a quarter of a mile in width, and overlooked on all sides by an impregnable mountain wall. The water is at times very clear and transparent, and in one portion of the lake is what the natives call a "petrified forest." The tops and dead branches of standing trees are distinctly seen, though seventy- five feet below the surface. In this lake the propagation offish is extensively carried on, and Sandstone Fornnations, Monunnent Park. MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 67 the water literally swarms with beautiful trout and salmon. They are so tame that droves of them will come close to the shore and eat crumbs from visitors' hands. There are usually about 20,000 trout in the lake and several thousand young ones in the tanks below. To feed them requires fifty to sixty pounds of ground meat per day in summer, and a larger quantity in winter. No fishing is allowed, and an armed man patrols the bank at night to prevent the destruction of these pets. The object of this enterprise is to stock the mountain streams for food and sport. All the waters of Colorado are being rapidly depleted of their beautiful finny inhabitants, and fishing there is not what it was a few years ago. Over the mountain, about twenty miles from this locality, wedged in two ravines, the tour- ist will find the towns of Cen- tral City and Nevadaville. It is worth the trouble of getting there just to see them. The first sight of these ci«ties of the hills is one not soon to be forgotten. There is a novelty in the scene which attracts in spite of the general barrenness of the land- scape, the forest hav- ing long since been c o n s u m ed in furnaces and mines. Thus the numberless prospect holes, dump piles, shaft cuts, and tunnels, that scar the earth's sur- face, are all the more plainly visi- ble. Streets and houses stand almost in tiers one above the other in narrow ravines and gulches. The towns centre where two streams and gulches unite, and the main thoroughfare, over three miles in length, winds through and around granite hills. Far up the giddy slopes, on either side, hang cot- tages and mine buildings, seemingly ready to topple one on another. An excursion to Middle Park can be made from Georgetown in two days, and many tourists, who have the time to spare, avail themselves of it. A stay of any length in the park is best enjoyed by "camping out." It is a region best suited to J' roughing it," and the attractions are largely such as invite sportsmen and others inclined to that sort of life. For Gray's Peak. 68 OUR AMERICAN RESORIS. those who expect to spend several weeks in Colorado, this method of life is very desirable not only in the parks but in other sections ; and, while having its advantages in many respects,' Mount of the Holy Cross. MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 69 is not more expensive, including the entire outfit, than living at hotels. Middle Park, while not a paradise, as often represented in railway and other publications, possesses many attrac- tions. The broad expanse of mountain scenery, unfolded from the passes of the Sierras or the valleys of the park, and the rolling prairies and river bottoms, with their luxuriant carpeting of grasses and flowers, diversified with groves of pine and aspen, form a picture but little short of enchanting. There is everything that goes to make a mountain ramble enjoyable, — cool, invigorating atmosphere, bright skies, good hunting and fishing, mineral waters, clear lakes, translucent streams and sparkling waterfalls. Once over the great Divide whose lowest pas- sageway is more than two miles above the sea, one can revel in the unrestricted freedom of mountain life in one of nature's fa- vored localities. Among the places not heretofore mentioned are the Pagosa Springs, which lie four miles south of the San Juan range, on the river of the same name. The chief attraction is a cluster of hot springs, the largest of which is forty feet in diameter, the water being exceedingly hot and charged with saline material. The celebrated Poncho Springs are located a short distance from South Arkansas, and are fifty in number. The locality offers numerous attrac- tions as a pleasure resort ; the scenery is grand and inspiring, views being had of Mounts Ouray, Shawano, Antero, Harvard, and Princeton. In the Wet Mountain valley, which is an old lake basin, lying between the Sangre de Cristo range and the Greenhorn Mountains, are three pros- perous townsj Silver Cliff, West Cliff, and Rosita. Professor Hayden re- gards the view of the Sangre de Cristo range, from the Wet Mountain valley, as the grandest in Colorado. In this portion of the range rise four peaks, all of which are higher than Pike's. Saguache, thirty-three miles from Del Norte, is located near San Luis Lakes, a large body of marshy land and shallow ponds, in .which ducks are found in plenty. Tourists may expect to encounter many interesting and almost irreconcilable freaks of nature during extended rambles in the Rocky Mountains. A writer of some note thus speaks of personal observations: "While crossing the 'range' which girdles North Park, one July day several summers ago, we were among snowbanks much of the time, and at night our camp was made by a great bank of glittering 'beautiful,' on account of the abundance of water, fuel and horse-feed in that vicinity. The bank was higher than our heads, and slowly melting under the influence of the July sun. At the very edge of the snowy mound we found straw- Camping at Flaming Gorge. 7° OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. berries in full bloom, and within ten feet could be counted half a dozen varieties of flowers. Water froze hard in camp utensils during the night, and the customary white frost was every- where visible in the morning. Morning after morning, in our wanderings at these high alti- tudes, have we shaken the crisp scales of white frost from our blankets and looked around upon a scene of apparent desolation. Brilliant flowers of the evening before wilted into ruins, and the splendid tall blue grass that looked a delicious morsel for stock at sunset, was bent, and sometimes broken, as with the weight of a night's winter. But an hour of sunshine always changed the scene to one of springtime freshness, and often the flora, apparently most deli- cate, rallied first under the magic influence." An experience to be remembered by every tourist who meets with it, is getting caught in a storm up in the mountains. The rain-clouds do not overspread the whole heavens as in the Atlantic States, but pass over in areas of narrow width, following up the mountain spurs and chains, and often, when the rainfall on a moun- tain-top or mountain-side is suf- ficient to transform the tiny riv- ulet or brooklet into a raging torrent of water, there will be in the valley below, only a mile or two distant, continued sunshine and a balmy and fragrant atmo- sphere. It is a grand and glo- rious sight to witness a thunder- storm in these mountains, if you only happen to be at a safe dis- tance. Then, too, listen to the rolling, almost deafening rever- berations as the thunder-cloud passes over some lofty peak or range, and to witness the vivid play of the forked lightning as it flashes from cloud to cloud, or darts meteor-like from crag to crag, while you are basking in the beautiful sunshine, is glorious in the extreme. But to happen to be in the path of this rapidly moving storm is to get such a drenching as one may never forget. During the month of August these storms occur in the mountains almost every afternoon, between one and four o'clock. They come without more than a moment's warning, and there is no time for getting away from them. Concerning the climate of Colorado various impressions prevail and much misunderstand- ing exists as to the effect of it upon different organizations. It is undoubtedly variable in some respects, but two things can always be depended upon in the summer season — pure air and plenty of sunshine. As a health resort the locality cannot be recommended indiscrimi- nately for all sorts of people, with all sorts of diseases, as was done by interested parties a few years ago. To those in the enjoyment of ordinary health the sensations experienced in cross- ing the ascending elevations of the great plains, and in the higher altitudes at the base of and within the mountains, are in a notable degree pleasant. The dryness and rarity of the atmos- phere, together with its remarkable electrical effects, combined with other peculiarities of the Green Lake. MOUNTAIN RESORTS. -I climate, excite the nervous system to a high degree of tension. Among the diseases which a visit to the Rocky Mountains will generally relieve, and often cure, are : Asthma, the earlier indications of pulmonary consumption, chronic bronchitis, certain forms of dyspepsia, and malarial poison. But it has been demonstrated that persons in the later stages of consumption go to Colorado only, in many cases, to die. Of the hundreds of patients of this class who have sought these high altitudes in the past some have found health, while many have sooner or later retraced their route in rapid decline. Any such, hoping for a cure, must not postpone too long the day of starting. And all persons in ill health are warned against making the transition from the lower to high altitudes too suddenly. It is always best to make one or two stops between Kansas City and the mountains. The drawbacks to a Colorado tour are the same as are encountered in all these long journeys to the great West, though "they do not exist in the same degree here as in the trip to Yellow- stone Park. There is no staging to get to Colorado, and there is, as a rule, no lack of accom- modations after arrival, especially in the centres. There are now four routes across the plains to Denver from Chicago, viz. : the Rock Island and Union Pacific, via Omaha; the Rock Island and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, via Atchison and Pueblo ; the Chicago, Burling- ton and Quincy, and the Rock Island and Kansas Pacific (now Kansas branch of the Union Pacific), via Kansas City. The latter is the shortest and most desirable route. In Colorado railway fares are enormously high — generally ten cents per mile — but competition may in time bring them down. The fare between Denver and Pueblo, ii8 miles, has always been $\o by the Denver and Rio Grande, but the opening of the new Denver and New Orleans road caused a war of rates, and last year passengers were carried between the two cities for $\. The hotel accommodations throughout Colorado may be termed " fair to middling." In Denver the Windsor is equal to the best in New York or Chicago, as is also the Oasis at Greeley. At Colorado Springs, Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Central City the aver- age rate is I3 per day. The rates of the Manitou hotels are ^4 and $5 per day. For all tourists to the mountains camping out, with a "Burro" pony to ride from point to point, is the least expensive and most satisfactory arrangement. These ponies can be purchased, with a complete outfit, for $50, and sold after use at a small sacrifice. California. But for its great distance from the populous portions of the East, California would prob- ably be the most frequented, as it is the most attractive State in the Union. Though it has been celebrated in books, newspapers, and magazines for twenty years, it is really but little better known to the great mass of tourists than it was to Swift when he wrote his description of the flying island of Laputa. "There have been Americans," says Charles Nordhoff in his excellent work on California, " who saw Rome before they saw Niagara ; and for one who hS.s visited the Yosemite a hundred will tell you about the Alps, and a thousand about Paris. But I would like to induce Americans, when they contemplate a journey for health, pleasure, or instruction, or all three, to think of their own country, and particularly of California. There, and only there, on this planet the traveller and resident may enjoy the delights of the tropics without their penalties; a mild climate, not enervating, but healthful and health-restoring; a wonderfully and variously productive soil without tropical malaria; the grandest scenery, with perfect security and comfort in travelling arrangements; strange customs, but neither lawless- ness nor semi-barbarism." This is a glowing picture, but it is not overdrawn. It is undoubt- edly true that California has a climate unequalled in any other part of our country, and that the scenery of her mountains and the Yosemite Valley ranks among the greatest wonders of the New World. 72 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. To most Eastern people California is still a land of big beets and pumpkins, of rough miners, of pistols, bowie-knives, abundant fruit, queer wines, and high prices — full of discom- forts, and abounding in dangers to the peaceful traveller. But the tourist of to-day finds that the conditions of '49 have passed away — that California is thoroughly civilized, abounding m comforts, luxuries and endless delights. After spending a few days in San Francisco looking at the strange sights in the streets and visiting the Cliff House to get a view of the harbor, the first place next visited is the world-famed Yosemite Valley. Of this marvellous valley, where the most exquisite pencillings of nature have fulfilled matchless conceptions, an enthusiastic writer has said: "Yosemite conveys to the soul of man, through the eye, what might the orchestra of Heaven, through the ear, were peals of thunder compassed into harmonious notes of music, then suddenly silenced, and followed amid instant stillness by nature's most tiny voice." Another, who had written extensively of the scenes met with in a tour around the world, upon taking his first view from "Inspiration Point," said: "Like a spendthrift in words, the only terms applicable to this spot I have wasted on minor scenes." All writers agree that language fails to adequately express the emotions felt or convey the impressions obtained upon a first visit. Standing upon "Inspiration Point," the tourist obtains the first and most impressive view of the valley, and one that will re- main ineffaceabiy stamped upon his memory. After satis- fying the senses with one rapid, general survey of the valley, the eye rests involun- tarily upon "ElCapitan," the monarch of rocks, and the most matchless piece of natu- ral masonry in the world ; then the vision wanders to the op- posite side, and takes in the beautiful waterfall known as the "Bridal Veil;" then the "Cathedral Rock;" then, back again, on the left, to the "Three Brothers," and, in the distance, the* " Dome," "Half Dome," and many other masses of perpendicular granite walls, majestically lifting themselves to the sapphire heavens. The valley, which is some six miles in length by less than a mile in average width, is about 4000 feet above the level of the sea, and is thickly wooded and scattered all over with floral offerings, rich and varied, and abundant beyond the gardens of wealth and taste. And, amid the transcendent grandeur of the valley, meanders a stream as cool and crystal-like as the upper fields of imperishable snow and ice from which it takes its source. On the crest of the mountains, and at their base, and all along the mountain trails, "gush frequent springs for the thirst of the traveller, shooting their sparkling rills across his path as Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley. MO UNTA JN KESOR TS. 73 soon as his lips are parched, and inviting him to stoop and drink of a nectar cool with dis- solving snows." The most attractive and beautiful object in the Valley, from March until July, is said by Major Truman, in his recent guide-book, to be the Yosemite Falls. The name is Indian and signifies large grizzly bear. These Falls are divided into three sections, — first a perpendicular descent of 1500 feet, then 600 feet of cataracts down a shelving ledge, and then a final leap of 400 feet. Professor Whitney concludes a description of them as follows : "As the various portions of the Falls are nearly in one vertical plane, the effect of the whole is nearly as grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the descent were made in one leap from the top of the cliff to the level of the Valley. Nor is the grandeur or beauty of the fall perceptibly diminished by even a very considerable diminution of the quantity of water from its highest stage. One of the most striking features of the Yosemite Falls is the vibration of Three Brothers, Yosemite Valley. the upper portion from one side to the other, under the varying pressure of the wind, which acts with immense force on so long a column. The descending mass of water is too great to allow of its being entirely broken up into spray; but it widens out very much towards the bottom — probably as much as 300 feet, at high water, the space through which it moves being fully three times as wide. This vibratory motion of the Yosemite and Bridal Veil Falls is something peculiar, and not observed in any others, so far as known ; the effect of it is indescribably grand, especially under the magical illumination of the full moon." The gem of the Valley is Mirror Lake, which, in order to see the reflections, must be visited early in the day. Major Truman thus describes a recent view of it: "We shall never forget the last time we visited this lovely spot. Neither the glowing harmony of Byron nor the exquisite pencil of Raphael could have adequately delineated the incomparable splendor of that radiant scene. The sapphire heavens were untouched by atmospheric speck, and there was an 6 74 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. ineffable beatitude in tlie deliciousness of tlie air. The Half Dome, with its storm-written hieroglyphics, stood above us in the sky and beneath us in the water, and we watched impatiently for the appearance of the imperial orb which had really dazzled us from our comfortable beds two hours before. At half past six o'clock a marvellous maze of opalescent cirra came suddenly over the summit, and chased each other rapidly across the silent lake; then followed processions of cumuli In pink, purple, crimson, violet, emerald, orange and dun ; and then came the king of day in gorgeous state ; and we gazed at it for some time in the waters as it flung its way triumphantly across its magnificently-frescoed track." But the attractions of this Valley are too numerous to be set forth in detail here. Perhaps the best known, and ranking with Mirror Lake among the most beautiful objects it contains, is the Bridal Veil Fall. To obtain an idea of it fancy a sheet of milk-white foam, seventy feet across, falling with a slight outward curve one thousand feet sheer descent, shattered into Lake Tahoe. spray near the foot and on the sides, which is blown about by the wind, and thrown back by the rebound till the base of the fall is quite hidden — then imagine the sun shining through this boiling mass of foam and mist, and watch the rainbows spanning the stream in concentric circles, as vivid as strips of brilliant ribbon, rainbows on each side, broken rainbows quivering down and others rising to meet them, every neighboring bush crowned with rainbows, and even the turf for rods around glowing with the richest colors, and all these shifting, changing, blazing, fading and forming again. Professor Whitney says of it: "The effect of the fall, as everywhere seen from {he Valley, is as if it were 900 feet in vertical height, its base being concealed by the trees which surround it. The quantity of water in the Bridal Veil P'all varies greatly with the season. In May and June the amount is generally at the maximum, and it gradually decreases as the summer advances. The effect, however, is finest when the body of watej- is not too heavy, since then the swaying from side to side, anti the waving MO UN7A IN RESOR TS. 75 under the varying pressure of the wind as it strike? the long column of water, is more marked. As seen from a distance at such times, it seems to flutter like a white veil, producing an indescribably beautiful effect. The name 'Bridal Veil' is poetical, but fairly appropriate. The stream which supplies this fall, at the highest stage of water, divides at the base into a dozen streamlets, several of which are only just fordable on horseback." Merced River is a pretty stream, which takes its source from the snows and lakes of the high Sierra, and dashes down into the Valley from innumerable cascades and waterfalls. Its banks are adorned by pine, fir, alder, spruce, poplar, and manzansta, and during the spring and summer months with myriads of flowering plants and shrubs. During the months of May, June, and July, in particular, I he California lilac, mariposa, aza- lea, and an infinite variety of smaller wild flowers are in full bloom and perfection, dis- playing all the rich colors of an Axminster, and which, interwoven with the emerald groves which enliven the banks of the Merced, constitute a piece of mosaic unrivalled in nature or art. The balsamic odors which escape the pines and firs, add spice to the fra- grance of the azalea and lilac, which freight the atmosphere with their aromatic sweets. The Yosemite Valley is sit- uated about 150 miles in an almost easterly direction from San Francisco, and nearly midway of the State from north to south. It was for many years the rendezvous or permanent abiding-place of hostile Indians, who had a legend for every point of inter- est, whether water or rock. The place wa^ first seen in 1850 by a number of white men who had formed themselves into a military company to punish or compel peace with bands of murderous Indians. An expedition under Captain Boling invaded the aboriginal stronghold and obtained possession, only to be in turn annihilated some time later. After peace had been secured the Valley was occasionally visited by plucky tourists who had heard of its wonders from the soldiers. In 1855 J. M. Hutchings, publisher of the Cali- fornia Magazine, being engaged in gathering materials for the illustration of California scenery, organized an expedition which really made the first party of tourists to visit the Valley, and which makes Mr. Hutchings's name inseparably connected with it. During the year 1856 a Rounding Cape Horn. FROM NORDHOFF'S CALIFORNIA, PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROS. ^6 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. trail was made into the Valley on the Mariposa side, and the first hotel was openedjn i857> when regular pleasure travel commenced. Many men eminent in the pursuit oO science have made careful geological studies and examinations of the Valley, and have arrived at different theories regarding its formation. Some pretend to trace it to glacial disturbances; others claim that it is the result of erosion ; while still others adopt the theory that it is the result of a vast rent or fissure. Major Truman says that none of these theories are well sustained but that the most natural as well as the most popular explanation of the formation is that during some convulsion of nature, "or something else of that kind," its bottom fell out. All tourists, explorers and geologists agree that the scenery of the Yosemite is of a type l)eculiar and unique. Boating on Donner Lake. KKO.M NORDIIOFF'S CALIFORNIA , PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROS. The Other attractions of California are its geysers, mountains, lakes, and big trees. Perhaps the Geysers, situated in Sonoma County, loo miles from San Francisco, are, partly owing to their accessibility and partly on account of their fame as objects of wonder, more generally visited than any other Pacific Coast attractions, the Yosemite excepted. From the largest to the smallest, from the " Steamboat " to the ''Witches' Caldron" down to infinitesimal bubbles to be seen in every direction, from the mouth of the seething, boiling, trembling caiion to its head there are at least a hundred springs, of all shapes, colors, conditions and temperatures. On every foot of ground alum, magnesia, tartaric acid, epsom salts, ammonia, nitre, iron and sulphur abound, being constantly sputtered out from caldrons of black, sulphurous, boiling water. At thousands of orifices you find hot, scalding steam escaping, and forming beautiful deposits of snowy sulphur crystals. The tourist can hardly form conclusions from a descrip- tion of this Plutonian realm, this branch of Hades, nestling among umbrageous oaks and firs, this prodigious laboratory and olla podrida of liquids and salts. With its " Devil's MOUNTAJX RESOR TS. 77 Kitchen," its " Devil's Inkstand," its " Devil's Armchair," and its " Devil's Machine Shop," this " Devil's Canon " is a devil of a place, and the injunction of " Don't you forget it " is unnecessary. The fame of the big trees of Calaveras and Mariposa groves is known to every schoolboy. These enormous giants of the forest grow so large that theatrical performances may be given on their stumps, and stage-coaches driven through holes cut in their trunks while still standing. " The giant trees, in silent majesty, Like pillars stand 'neath Heaven's mighty dome. 'Twould seem that, perched upon their topmost branch, With outstretched finger man might touch the stars." Observation Car. FROM NOKHHOFF'S CALIFORNIA, PUBLISHED BY IIARPP:R A BROS. Hittell, in his ''Resources of California," says: "One of the trees which is down — the Father of the Forest— must have been four hundred and fifty feet high and forty feet in dia- meter. In 1853 one of the largest trees, ninety-two feet in circumference and over three hundred feet high, was cut down. Five men worked twenty-five days in felling it, using large augers. According to Mr. Hutchings's statement, the Calaveras Grove of Big Trees was the first one discovered by white men, and the date was the spring of 1852. The person who first stumbled on these vegetable monsters was Mr. A. T. Dowd, a hunter employed by the Union Water Company to supply the men in their employ with fresh meat, while digging a canal to bring the water down to Murphy's. According to the accounts, the discoverer found that his story gained so little credence among the workmen that he was obliged to resort to a ruse to get them to where the trees were." Foremost among the lakes of California — of which there are many folded in the mountain- tops like emeralds in their setting— and ranking all others in point of rare beauty and situation, is Lake Tahoe. It is a magnificent sheet of water, twenty-five miles in length and in some 78 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. places from twelve to fourteen miles in width. It has a depth of 1700 hundred feet, an alti- tude of 6216 feet, and is surrounded by mountains which tower above the lake from 2000 to nearly 5000 feet. More might be said of Tahoe, perhaps, than of any other spot in Cali- fornia—excepting, always Yosemite. There are grandeur and enchantment at all times in the scenery which environs the lake, and the panorama of mountain and valley, meadow-land and woodland, sunshine and cloud, as viewed from Tahoe City, is spacious, inspiriting and impressive. The summer sunsets upon Tahoe are remarkable for their great beauty and wealth of coloring, and are pronounced by European tourists as superior to those so often mirrored in Lakes Como and Maggiore. Donner Lake perpetuates the name of George Donner, an early emigrant, who, with his wife and a large number of other men and women belonging to an expedition, were overtaken by a tremendous storm of snow early in the winter of 1846, during which many perished, at a point upon the old stage-road not far distant from this beautiful body of water. Some years ago a well-known California writer produced a volume entitled "Fate of the Donner Party," in which he apostrophizes this enchanting lake as follows : " Three miles from Truckee lies one of the fairest and most picturesque lakes in all the Sierra. Above and on either side are lofty mountains, with castellated granite crests, while below, at the mouth of the lake, a grassy, meadowy valley widens out and extends almost to Truckee. The body of water is three miles long, one mile and a half wide, and 483 feet in depth. Tourists and picnic parties annually flock to its shores, and Bierstadt has made it the subject of one of his finest, grandest paintings. Li summer, its willowy thickets, its groves of tamarack and forests of pine are the favorite haunts and resting-places of the quail and grouse. Beautiful speckled mountain trout plentifully abound in its crystalline waters, which reflect as in a polished mirror the lofty overhanging mountains, with every stately pine, bounding rivulet, blossoming shrub, and waving fern." The tourist who would see California at its best should visit it in the spring. With the month of June the dry season sets in, and vegetation becomes parched and dusty. In March, April and May the country is a: its loveliest. But portions of the State are latterly much sought as winter resorts. Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties, all in the southern part of the State, fcrm what is generally known as "Tropical California," a land " Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose." Where luscious fruits of many species and unnumbered varieties load the trees, and gentle breezes come through the bowers. Much has been written of the influence of external nature upon national character. It is considered as established that extrem'e cold dulls the intellect; that extreme heat debases morals and enervates the body ; that the temperate zone only can produce a really high and pure civilization. It has further been noted that the people of mountainous countries are, other things being equal, superior to the people of level countries, and the dwellers on the sea-coast to those of the interior. The Californian, like the Greek, has every advantage of natural surroundings. He is neither dulled by extreme cold nor demoralized by extreme heat; he aspires with the mountains; he drinks in the many sounding sea, figuratively speaking ; actually he has something better to drink in his clear waters and the juices of his luscious grape. In other parts of the temperate zone men get more than an occasional taste of both the torrid and the frigid ; in California it is not so. The Pacific slope enjoys warmer winters than the Eastern States, and cooler summers. The nights are always cool ; the days never oppressively sultry. There are no violent storms of any kind ; the air is dry and invigorating. To reach California take Pennsylvania Railroad to Chicago, MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 79 whence two routes are offered : the Rock Island and Union and Central Pacific, or the new southern route via Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. Either is a long, tedious ride, though simple holiday amusement compared to the methods of crossing the plains a few years ago. The Catskills. It is but justice to say that there is, probably, not a mountainous region on the globe more picturesque and varied and more nat- urally the home of romance and tra- dition, than that of twenty or thirty miles square which embrace the rare Catskills. If one approach them from the Hudson, his first glimpse will show Round Top and High Peak towering into the sky, with the other mountains gathered about them, as children about their parents. The ascent by the stage-route, from the village of Catskill, is so easy as to seem, at first, tame ; but the charm of the way soon disposes of any such sentiment. The fine, fuU-foliaged trees in Rip Van Winkle's dell make a pleasant period for the backward views ; the noble North Mountain continually rises before and gives dignity to the scene; vistas of blue- browed hills stretchout before to an unexpected reach; the walk up-grade is beguiled by the music of invisible waterfalls, while the tender sigh of the woods and the sweet breath of the flowers linger in the sylvan cool, and a peaceful spell broods on the dreamy outlooks. Eight miles ahead one steps from behind the large hotel on the landing and from the platform looks down upon a view as original as superb. The climbing of the mountain has been so natural and the ascent so cunningly covered by the hand of nature, that it is bewildering and delightful to be thus suddenly perched 2700 feet above yon distant shaving-like Hudson, and look down into this royal sweep. On one side mountains and ravines, gorges and dells, glittering waterfalls and shining brooks, all framed in the deep green of the grand forests, with here and there a touch of color in a clump of flowers. On the other side, sheer down at the bottom of the precipice, and at the foot of the mountains, the apparently flat sur- face of the valley spreads out to the Hudson, which rolls out its slender, silver length for fifty miles; here toy houses and tiny buildings, the quiet homes of those toiling farmers, who look like insects crawling over the plain below. The two opposed sections as sharply separated as if an express order of the Maker had placed " ~ ^ here the rugged and picturesque, there the fair and pastoral. ' l Further out, the forests on their summits serve to mark the line inspiration Rock. So OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. of hills stretching out towards Saugerties. Over the river the country seems to have been purposely placed on exhibition slope to show as much of the rolling surface as possible, while the horizon is circled by the Hudson Highlands, the Berkshire and the Green Mountains, which unite their chains in a line of blue that grows dim and distant in the gathering twilight. At many points in the Catskills one may from his bed see the sun rise a hundred miles away, glorify the distant summits of the Green Mountains in Vermont, sparkle on the White Mountains, light up the rich Connecticut plains, and then flood the whole ten thousand square miles that lie within the range of the eye. From Table Rock, on North Mountain, may be had a magnificent view of this landscape from one standpoint. From South Mountain, one may see the Catskill Pass and the peaks of New Jersey, while the ambitious may climb so high as to imagine he sees, beyond the intervening beauties, the city of Albany, — an anthill in a The Wittenberg, froni Mount Cornell. meadow. The mountains have pilgrimages innumerable, and exquisite nooks in abundance. In the region of Round Top and High Peak are the two lakes, North and South, whose com- mon outlet falls into a deep cleft, the first fall one hundred and eighty feet, the second eighty feet, and the third forty feet. The falls are seen to advantage from below, where the walls behind rise, rugged and broken, three hundred feet. The supply of water being limited, a dam has been placed across the verge of the cliff", and ordinarily a thin ribbon drops over, but at certain periods the dam is opened, and the body of water dashes down inspirited style, the curling spray flies back into one's face, and out amongst the big boulders, half-hidden by nod- ding ferns, the red-capped rubus and tender-tinted laurel bushes, the Catterskill bounds and sparkles from the cool, dark depths, to wind its devious way eight miles to the Hudson, which MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 8i it enters near the village. After an hour or so spent in exploring this fine glen, a delightful walk to the Clove, a mile distant, may make a charming period to the initiative excursion, or, if one choose, he may ramble a mile and a half to Sunset Rock, which commands some noble views. One of the most romantic resorts in the Catskills is Haines's Falls. In the first leap of one hundred and fifty feet, and the second of eighty feet, the water is churned and broken up into a white, angry mass, which continues in its downward course a quarter of a mile, in which space the stream is lowered four hundred and seventy- five feet. The way down from the foot of these beautiful and varied Falls is through the Kaaterskill Clove, a ravine so rare as to form a fitting station between the laughing waters and the plain beneath. Here are the curved aVid tumbled High Rocks and the Fawn's Leap Falls. The edge of these Falls sweeps Mount Cornell, from ^A/^ittenberg. around in a fine curve, that seems like a heavy piece of masonry work, while the water pitches thirty feet into an immense pit of granite. At the mouth of the Clove lies Palensville, a rail- road terminus, and six miles from the town is Plattekill Clove, reached by a rough road. The principal feature of this Clove is the Black Chasm Falls, three hundred feet high, A ride on the railroad through Stony Clove, some six miles distant, gives a good idea of mountain en- gineering, and shows some interesting and wild perspectives. Four miles west of the entrance to this Clove, Hunter Mountain rears its head four thousand and eighty-two feet. The most prominent of the Catskills is High Peak, six miles from the main hotels. The trip is generally undertaken by the venturesome, as the way is rough and hard, but the mag- nificent view from the summit rthirtv-eiarht hundred and four feet high^ of the combined out- (82) MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 83 looks well repays the toil. The southern portion of the Catskills is not so well known as the region more particularly alluded to above, but abounds in lofty spurs, such as the Storm King (four thousand feet high), Cornell Mountain, Overlook Mountain, etc., while spots, like the Poet's Glen, Overlook Rock, Lover's Retreat, and the Pilgrim's Pass, are as charming as their names are suggestive. The casual mention of these points of interest can give no idea of the riches held in store. One walk along the Cauterskill from Fawn's Leap Falls to Haines's Falls will reveal such a succession of beau- ties that many a lovely pic- ture will linger in one's memory for years to come. Dewy rock grottos open into others beyond, and everywhere sweet moss-laid nooks, where fairies might hold carnival under the shade of the brightly dress- ed, immaculate iron-wood, the broad-crowned alders, and the swaying mountain willows. The air is laden with woody perfumes, and the smell of the junipers, the cedars, the spruces, and the balsams, that sweep away all taint of the far-off city, and infuse new vigor into the frame of the weary worker. It is the one added spell to the charms of the vistas beyond and the forest around, where the beautiful white birch coquettes with the dignified oak and smiles on the blushing maple. The banks and by-ways are pink and white with the bloom of the laurel, and the ground is spread with an artist rug of white pipsissewa trumpets, pointed with blue-eyed grass, and relieved here and there by clusters of pink ear-drops, maidens'-hair Haines's Fails, fern, the purple fox-glove, and many another delicate spray ; and down through these glens goes the Cauterskill, in and out, now murmuring around a gentle curve, and now breaking into a thousand rills at the brink of a precipice, to meet in a merry volume further down the brook. 84 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS What coy glimpses of beauty open as the stream dashes on its course ! Nearly at the bottom of the gorge is a spot where one may sit in the shadows of the rocks, beneath the falls, and dream out a day. The sketches that many nature-loving artists have taken from this point tell but a part of the story one may read in the way of the brook, now silvery and glancing, now rainbow-hued, and waving arms of wind-tossed spray ; in the witchery of the trembling bowers of softly lit foliage; in the fresh colors of starry flowers painted on a background of green- fringed rock ; in the music of the birds, mingling with the song of the waters, when, over all, is that indescribable benison that rests upon one in the midst of nature's own retreats: " Midst greens and shades the Cauterskill leaps, From cliffs where the wood-flower clings; All summer he moistens his verdint steps, With the sweet light spray of the mountain springs; And he shakes the woods on the mountain side, When they drip with the rains of autumn tide." The Catskills are easy of access. Boats run daily from New York, the one leaving from the foot of Vesey Street at 8.30 a.m. arriving at Catskill landing at 3.20 p.m., or the traveller may go via the Htidson Railroad to Catskill station. From the North the morning boat from Albany reaches the landing at 1 1 a.m , or one may go by rail, as above. Omnibuses from the landing to the village. A railroad from Catskill to Palensville, where Kaaterskill Clove debouches on the Hudson River valley, saves stage-ride to those wishing to go to Pine Orchard, Round Top, and adjacent points. Another route is by the new Stony Clove Rail- road, which connects with the Delaware Railroad at Phoenicia and runs to Hunter on Scho- harie Creek, a distance of twelve miles. A stage-route from Tannersville Junction on this road leads to principal points. The mountains may be entered from the south by railway from Rondout to West Hurley, and thence by stage. A fee of twenty-five cents is usually charged at points of interest. The hotels and boarding-houses are numerous, and range in prices from ^1.50 to ^4.50 per day, and ^10 to $25 per week. The Adirondacks. The most distinctively mountainous section east of the Rockies is that tract stretching from Mohawk River on the south to Canada on the north, with the historic and beautiful Lakes Champlain and George on the east, and the clear St. Lawrence at the northwest. The mountains, to the number of five hundred, have been placed upon a plateau itself two thousand feet above the level of the sea, in five ranges, which cross in parallel lines from northeast to southwest, and rise in tiers toward the west, the highest mountains, Seward, Mclntyre, McMartin, Whiteface, Dix Peak, Colden, Santanoni, Snowy Mountain, and Pharaoh, all nearly 5000 feet high, and Mt. Marcy, 5337 feet high, being in the most western, Clinton or Adiron- dack range. The mountains are remarkable for their uniformity in the matter of height. There are loftier spurs in both the White Mountains of New Hampshire and in the Black Mountains of North Carolina, but the Adirondacks have a higher average than either of these. In the valley between these ranges and mountains lie a thousand lakes, that mirror on their polished bosoms the steep and densely wooded declivities, and the stony summits above. Everywhere are these bodies of water, spread over a reach twenty miles long, or nestling in a hollow, pent up within the bounds of a few rods; in a basin in the raised floor of this region, fifteen hundred feet above the sea, or, as Lake Perkins, up in the clouds, three times as high. The largest of the lakes are the Fulton Lakes, the Saranacs, Tupper, Long Lake, Colden, Henderson, Sanford, Eckford, Raquette, Forked, Newcomb and Pleasant. Down the by-ways from lake to lake a maze of brooks and rivers join the waters of the mountains, flowing through MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 85 the valleys, as the Saranac and the Ausable, in marking lines of silver to separate the ranges, or as the Boreas, the Cedar and the Hudson rivers, cracking through rock-ribbed courses to meet in a common band below, that winds away to the waiting sea. These latter views clearly define the southern continuation of the valleys traced above by the Ausable, while Raquette Lake, Long Lake, and the Fulton Lakes follow the depressions from the Saranac to the south- west. In' Raquette Lake rises the river of the same name — the river of the mountains; born amongst them and of them, the pride and beauty of the Adiron- dacks, it sweeps along a devious course for one hundred and twenty miles, and finally mingles its sweet waters with those of the St. Lawrence. There are half a dozen different routes into the Adirondacks and the Wilderness, and one may follow his fancy or suit his con- venience by travelling along the line of the mountains, or climb- ing across the ranges. At the northeast, the sentinel of the system is Whiteface Mountain, which looms up from the Wil- mington side, superb and grand, a mountain view rarely equalled. From the summit of Whiteface one looks out to peaks beyond and mountains about, over for- ests charging up the heights, and far down the valleys to the south, beyond lovely Lake Placid, and down at the north side of the mountain on the jagged, deep and narrowchasm, the " Notch," through which the turbulent Au- sable leaps in a series of rapids and cataracts. One might make a lengthy sojourn in this neigh- borhood, climbing the moun- tains to gaze upon the grand scene, looking at the Monarch himself from a boat on Lake Placid, visiting Paradox Pond, u^idian Pass. whose outlet at high water flows back 'into the pond, or exploring Saranac Lake, a beautiful sheet, seven miles long, and having fifty-two romantic islands, wooded to the waters' edge, where the hemlocks wave their feathery arms in beckoning to the sha- dows at their feet. A very pleasant escape might be made by going down the Saranac River to Round Lake, a pretty, island -dotted circle of water, over which at times, the most 86 OUR AMERICAN RESORIS. terrific storms rage. Tracing around the curve of the river one enters the Upper Saranac Lake, the largest of the Adirondack lakes, due vilest from Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, eight miles long, and from one to three miles wide. Some few miles to the north, past the half-way Clear Lake, and beside the mountain of the same name, is St. Regis Lake, one of the most picturesque of the group, surrounded by numerous ponds, on the outskirts of civilization, and connected with Upper Saranac Lake by the " Route of the Nine Carries." To the southwest of the section described is a region filled with all that can interest the sportsman or delight the lover of nature. By steamer down the beautiful Raquette to Tupper Lakes, and one is fairly started on the round. Into this Jake the Bog River, rich with speckled trout, drops in a charming cascade. Up this river and beyond several "carries" is the lonely and sequestered sister of the former lake. Little Tupper Lake, whose gentle waves lap on a precipitous and rocky shore. Then past a series of ponds and "car- ries" and the Raquette Falls to Long Lake, a watery seam in the valley for nearly twenty miles, from which one may see Mt. Sew- ard rearing his head above the roll- ing plateau between. Farther south the lovely Forked Lake and the final Raquette Lake, the home of a host of wild birds and beasts. This whole section, including the southwestward Fulton Lake and the surrounding chain of eight lakes, is rich in varied scenery and mountain fastnesses, and abounds with game. Opposite Port Kent on the Champlain and three miles distant is Ausable Chasm, a wild-and beau- tiful cut through which the Ausable, after dashing seventy feet over the Birmingham Falls and then leaping the Horseshoe Falls, flows between walls a hundred feet high and fifty feet apart, in a channel at places but little more than two yards wide. The chasm is made easy of access by a stairway of a hundred and sixty-six steps, and throughout the nooks and rocks and pools are guarded by rails and fences as in the similar Watkins' Glen. To enter the central eastern part of the Adirondack region one leaves West porton " Northwest Bay," passing Hurricane Peak, the Giant of the Valley, Bald Mount to the right, round-topped Cobble I Grand Flume, Ausable Cliasm. FROM STODDARD'S GUIDK TO THE ADIRONDACKS. MO UN TA IN RES OR TS. 87 Hill, and the Roaring Brook Fall?, where a mountain stream dashes over a precipice five hundred feet high, to reach the monarch of them all — Mt. Marcy. A hard climb up the picturesque trail to the summit discloses the most magnificent view to be obtained amongst the mountains. The great peaks filing away in splendid ranges, and rising and falling in the distance, lakes studded with green-fringed islets and encircled by dense, heavy-foliaged forests, river and brooks chaining the lakes in rare bands, glancing in the sunlight and leaping over beetling cliffs, great gorges ~~ ~ I and wild chasms splitting through the flanks of the moun- tains or opening down into the bottom of the plateau. One must himself stand upon the lofty height and look out upon all these wilds, with the Green Mountains of Vermont and Lake Champlain in the fore and background, to picture the in- describably grand landscape. Coming up to Mt. Marcy on the other side and from the south, the most notable body of water passed is Schroon Lake, a delightful resort in itself. On this side of Mt. Marcy are some of the most prominent moun- tains in the system, and many noble views. The trail up leads by Avalanche Lake, a very high and lovely sheet of water, and that unique and stupendous gorge, Indian Pass, in the most savage part of " Conyacragu," or Dismal Wilderness. This section is the wildest and most difficult in the Adirondacks, explored only by the adventur- ous sportsman, who at any step may have to look along the bar- rel of his rifle into the eyes of a black bear, a wolf, a panther, or a lynx. In the centre of this pass, 4000 feet above the level of the sea, rises the Hud- son from the midst of rocky '>fcv':5^o-.'ii^ Ausable Pond. FROM STODDAED's guide to the AriRONrACKS. recesses, where winter lingers through the year, and close beside the source of the great river are the springs from whose cold depth the Ausable rises, so close beside, in fact, that "the wild-cat, lapping the waters of the one, may bathe his hind feet in the other; and a rock rolling from the precipice above could scatter spray from both in the same concussion." g8 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. In a brief sketch it would be impossible to enumerate the various points of interest and the many spots where the smoke has risen from camp- tires in the thirty years since the Adiron- dacks were explored. Suffice it to say that Nature has furnished the Wilderness in a manner to suit the most cosmopolitan taste. A party may find recreation and enjoyment in the neighborhood of the many good hotels, and pass the time in the orthodox pursuits common to mountain resorts; or a company of good spirits may don red flannel shirts and cowhide boots, and with guides row down the rivers and across the lakes, througe files of flags and grassy shallows, or shoot along the rushing rapids to float out into beds of the pickerel-flower, past banks lined with white and gold lilies, that load the air with perfume, and paddle at eventide toward some little bay over rustling rushes and spongy pads. Then begin the free, the joyous outdoor life. The axes ring out and the echoes wander through woods that mayhap never caught the sound before. The spruces, cedars and pines about contribute to the planting of the tent, and beneath the oak, linden, birch, poplar or fir the camp-fire throws out a ruddy glow. All about are the magnificent forests, with sturdy giants, jungles of undergrowth and prostrate monarchs that once sighed amongst their kind without a human ear to hearken. What a paradise for a sportsman ! To row out on some lovely lake by golden sands and patches of lilies, with the fragrant breath of the balsam and the pine in the air, and have the guide send the boat cleaving into a narrow opening overhung by bushes, and there in the lily-lined and gold-flecked stream of black, slow-running water to see the sweet vista broken everywhere by leaping, splashing, splendid spotted trout. Ah ! here and there they rush, cleaving the surface in hot pursuit of a dancing gnat, or jumping clear out of the brook to seize a passing fly. Then to come to rest in some steady pool, around a tufted bank and with the trees hanging out their branches overhead, uncoil the leader and cast out the flies, and as in a gleam of yellow light the hackle disappears strike down the pliant rod to fix the hook, and then play and humor and control the game fish as he whirls in his mad course around the pool. The fine lance-wood curves and quivers, and the silken hair whirls over the reel, but skilful management brings him at last to the surface gasping, to be scooped up in the landing-net and breathe his last at the bottom of the boat. To those who prefer the rifle to the rod the forests offer many attractions, and paramount to all, deer hunting. One may steal out at night and with muffled oar paddle noiselessly along the borders of a lake, till a dark outline ahead indicates a deer. As the lantern is opened the bright ray shoots across the waters and the animal looks up in momentary bewilderment. No one who has not at such a time held in his hand a breech-loader, and at the click of the trigger-seen the deer bound away in the line of the gleaming sights, can appreciate the thrill that courses through him as the sharp report rings out on the night air, nor the exultation that rises into a cheer, if the report is followed by the crash of the falling deer. All the caution and cunning and skill of an experienced hunter, however, are needed to often enjoy the pleasure. But without the hunting and fishing there are many ways of spending the days — exploring the nooks and corners of the lakes and ponds, running the rapids of some dashing streams, or admiring the grand scenery as it opens before the boatman. To know the delights of a savage life one must leave civilization behind, and in the heart of the wilderness drink in health and strength and be glad in perfect peace and forgetfulness. The White Mountains. While the Alps, the Sierra Nevada, the Yosemite, and other mountain regions may con- tain higher mountains, deeper valleys, broader lakes, more extensive vistas, yet there is nothing to rival the White Mountains in their infinite variety of scenery, manifold kaleidoscopic com- binations of natural grandeur, and landscape effects; the contrasts and brilliance of color. MO IJNTA IN RESOR 7 '.V. 89 too, varying not only with the seasons, but with the changing hours of the day. Their valleys and glens, redounding with historic interest, unlike the unoccupied forests beneath the peaks of the Rockies or the desolate glaciers of the Alps, have been the sites of towns known to many generations, and are still occupied by the hardy descendants of the ancient conquerors of both wilderness and a savage foe. The comparatively ready accessibility of this truly wonderful region, with its inexhaustible supply of rich material for every tourist, whether he crave sensational effects, high artistic pleasure, wild rambles, or grand solitude — with its stupendous mountains, hanging rocks and crags, crystal streams, verdant woods and meadows, grand cascades and roaring torrents, deep ravines, and beautiful valleys and lakes — renders it an inexplicable surprise that so many American people should cross the ocean to admire scenery most of which is inferior to this charming portion of New England. Mouiil Washington, from Faylan's. FROM "the heart OF THB WHITE MOUNTAINS," PUBLISHED BY HARPER i BROS It will be the endeavor of this chapter to hastily conduct the tourist through every way in this grand and picturesque region, and point out the principal attractions and places of interest. It may be noted at the outset that excellent hotels and boarding-houses will be found in every village and hamlet ; and at no place will the visitor find the country lacking in this respect. Occupying the northern portion of New Hampshire, and within a half day's ride from Boston, are these highlands called the White Mountains, comprising two clusters or groups of peaks, locally known as the White and Franconia Mountains, divided by table-land from ten to twenty miles wide. A ride from Boston via the Eastern Railroad to Conway, one hundred and thirty-two miles, will bring the tourist to this beautifully situated village, which serves as an excellent centre for many short and interesting excursions. To the visitor preferring the 7 Crystal Cascade "the heart of the white mountains," published by harper & BROS. (90) air of rural quiet to the social attractions and brilliant life of its fashionable neighbor, North Conway, it affords great advantages. Five miles to the north is the summer capital of the mountain region, North Conway, one of the prettiest towns in New England. It is a favorite rendezvous for ar- tists and the fashionable world, and very largely fre- quented throughout the best part of the season, which the Rev. Thomas Starr King says is " from the middle of June to the middle of July." The very entrance" into North Conway seems like the intro- duction through a beautiful gateway of mountains into the retreats of nature — grand, imposing, entrancing. Ad- xnirable views present them- selves on all sides. Looking up the village street Thorn Mountain is seen, behind which lies Jackson, and farther on, up the Ellis River valley, Gorham and Androscoggin. To the right the gentle slopes of the Kearsarge rise, with the silver-gray crest of the moun- tain towering to the clouds; to the left the Ledges and INIoat Mountain present them- selves, the abrupt declivities of the latter forming a fitting termination to the picturesque scenery of the beautiful valley beneath it. Following the old stage- road from North Conway in a northwesterly direction the tourist finds beautiful prospects all along the route as he passes through the Cathedral Woods, past the Intervale House, with Mount Kearsarge to his right. MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 91 Moat Mountain on the left, and with the most charming views opening into the Saco intervales. Soon Thorn Mountain is passed on the right, the Ellis River, the runaway from Mount Washington, is crossed, and the town of Jackson is reached. This hamlet is very prettily situated and a favorite resort, affording fine views of Tin, Thorn, Moat and Iron Mountains. The Jackson Falls, within the village, and visible from the highway bridge over Wild Cat Brook, present a pretty scene, the water being precipitated in glistening white bands over a high dark ledge into foaming pools below. Trout-fishing in the brook is one of the favorite pastimes of the many tourists sojourning here. Beautiful views of Mount Washington are obtained from the Fernald and Prospect farms, near Jackson. Between Jack- son and Goodrich Falls, one and a half miles below, the prospect is one of the finest in the highlands. The Carter Notch will repay the tourist well for the time spent upon visiting it. From here the visitor may take the stage for the Glen House. This hotel is at the very base of the monarch of the White Mountains, Mount Washington. Luxuriant forest scenery opens on every side as the traveller progresses into the Glen, which is three hours by stage from Glen Station. The latter point can be reached via the Grand Trunk and Eastern Railroad, or by any of the routes over Mount Washington. The five highest peaks of the White Moun- tains (Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay and Washington) present themselves in grand array from this point. The disciple of Walton may enjoy good trout-fishing in the vicinity, while the general tourist will find the neighborhood abounding with points of interest, chief among which are the Garnet Pools, the Imp, Thompson's Falls, the Emerald Pool, the Glen-Ellis Falls, the Crystal Cascade, and Carter Dome. From the Glen House the road leads along the Peabody Valley, a distance of eight miles, to Gorham, the nearest village to the great peaks north of Mount Washington. " No point in the mountains," says Thomas Starr King, who spent several seasons in Gorham, " offers views to be gained by walks of a mile or two, that are more noble and memorable." The village, which is an important station of the Grand Trunk Railroad, is 812 feet above the sea, and is located in a broad valley, whose dry, bracing air is healthful and invigorating. East of Gorham, near the railroad station (Grand Trunk line) of Shelburne, is spread, over a rugged and mountainous area, the little hamlet of Shel- burne, the road through which is, according to Mr. King, unsurpassed by any drive of equal length among the mountains, for varied interest in beauty of scenery, historic and traditional associations connected with the prominent points of the landscape, and the scientific attrac- ttons of some portions of it. The chief mountains of the town are the Ingalls, Baldcap, and the northern peaks of Moriah. Mount Winthrop, within the town, affords an excellent point for overlooking the Androscoggin Valley, with the Newry range and other mountain heights of Western Maine in the distance. Continuing the trip in the opposite direction from Gorham, the nearest station reached is Berlin Falls. The Androscoggin River descends here, nearly 200 feet in one mile of its course, in powerful falls and rapids, the most inter- esting being the Berlin Falls. Other noteworthy points are the Alpine Cascades and Mount Forest. A favorite drive with visitors to this locality is that over the Milan road along the river through its picturesque valley to Milan, eight miles distant. From West Milan and Green's Ledge grand views of the mountain ranges and the Androscoggin Valley reward the tourist for the trip. Returning from this northwardly invasion into this beautiful region of the White Moun- tains towards its grand centre of observation. North Conway, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad may serve as a basis of further operations, with the little hamlet of I^pper Bartlett for a starting-point. This place is admirably situated, being entirely surrounded by moun- tains. There are the Carrigan, Nancy Range, Tremont, and Haystack, on the west; Hart's and Willoughby Ledges, Parker, Crawford, Resolution, Langdon, and Pickering, on the north ; 92 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. Kearsarge and Moat to the east ; and Table and Bear Mountains to the south. Fine trouting in the tributaries of the Saco tempts the angler, and from here the fine view of Mount Carri- gan is had which Champney's famous painting has made so widely known. Proceeding further, Bemis Station is reached, another centre of rich mountain scenery. Near the station is the old Mount Crawford House, whose site was occupied before the year 1800 by Abel Crawford, It was formerly one of the chief hostelries of the mountain region, but has long since been closed to the public. Interesting excursions may be made from here to the Craw- ford and Nancy Mountains, the latter of which derives its name from a romantic though sad incident in the early history of the neighborhood : In the winter of 1788, Nancy, a servant in the family of Colonel Whipple, was about to go to Portsmouth with her lover to be married. In her simple trustfulness, the young girl confided the small sum, which constituted all her marriage portion, to her betrothed, who repaid her with the basest treachery. Seizing an opportunity, her faithless admirer left the hamlet. On learning this, she set out after him through the snow, reaching the camping-place at the Notch, thirty miles distant, only to find it deserted, and herself unable to rekindle the smouldering fire. She pressed on until, after cross- ing and recrossing the icy Saco several times, she died of utter exhaustion upon the south bank of Owl's Head Mountain. Nancy's Brook, where, under a canopy of evergreen which the snow tendeny drooped over her, s'le wrs found by men who had gone in search of her. The lover became insane and died, a few years afterward, a raving maniac. The view from the Crawford House is particularly grand, with the pleasant Crawford Glen in the foreground, and many of the loftiest peaks of the region beyond. Between Willard, Willey, Webster, and Jackson Mountains (all of which may be seen from here), and dividing the great New Hampshire group of mountains near its centre, is a deep pass, the White Mountain Notch. The massive walls are seen towering to a height of two thousand feet, and, indeed, some of the highest peaks are lost to sight among the clouds. The base of the Notch forms the bed of the wild, impetuous Saco River, which descends through rocky debris of old avalanches, and winds about and dashes and splashes over huge boulders along this vast ravine. The splendor of autumnal scenes in the White Mountain Notch has been again and again enthusiastically described by the pen of the author and por- trayed by the brush of the artist. A number of falls, notably the Flume and Silver Cascades, and the Ripley and Arethusa Falls, charm the visitor, and invite him to prolong his stay here. The Crawford House occupies the supposed bed of an ancient lake, upon a plateau nineteen M0UM\4fA' RESORTS. p^ hundred feet above the sea. Near by are also the Gate of the Notch, the Elephant's Head, Bucher's Cascades, and Gibbs's Falls. Visits to Mounts Willard and Willey, from which beautiful views are obtained, are among the most pleasant and profitable tours to be made in this region. Four miles north of the Crawford, is the Fabyan House, fifteen hundred and seventy feet above the sea. Most of the summits of the Presidential range of mountains are visible from here. The Ammonoosuc Falls, where the stream descends over rapids for some dis- tance above and then makes a fall of nearly fifty feet through a narrow gorge, whose walls are polished ledges of granite, the Giant's Grave, a mound of river gravel or a sandbar formed by the reaction of the ocean-waves against the adjacent hills, and many other points invite the tourist's attention. Good trout-fishing forms additional attraction. The Twin Mountain House is located upon a terrace of the Ammonoosuc River, about five miles west of the Fabyan. The Twin Mountains, which are difficult of access, are best seen from Mounts Washington and Lafayette. The best point of advance is considered to be the head of Little River. Eight miles west of the Twin Mountain House is Bethlehem Station. The usual approach to this point from the south is via the Boston, Concord and Montreal Road, and its Mount Wash- ington branch. Passengers from North Conway go by the Ogdensburg Railroad through the Notch. Stages from the hotels will be found in waiting at the station. The village of Beth- lehem Street, on a high plateau, fourteen hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, is said to be the highest village east of the Rocky Mountains. The view from here is broad and imposing, and the surroundings lack little if any of the beauty of those of North Conway. The drives in the neighborhood are varied and delightful. Bethlehem is particularly sought by victims of hay fever, to whom it is a perfect harbor of refuge, while its sanitary advantages in other respects have made a sojourn here a frequent object of recommendation to other in- valids. The Mount Washington House, delightfully situated a few rods from the main street, is one of the best caravansaries in the highlands, and is commended to sojourners at Bethle- hem. Eight miles north of Bethlehem, on the St. John's River, is the pretty town of White- field. The Howland Observatory is two miles distant from the village, and commands a grand view. Dalton is next reached at the head of the Fifteen-mile Falls of the Con- necticut River, a chain of wild rapids in a narrow valley. Farther on, towards the north- v,'estern verge of the mountain region, one of the most beautiful villages of the White Moun- tains, Lancaster, is located. It has a delightful climate, and is surrounded by some of the best farms in the State. It lies on the Israel's River, near its confluence with the Connecti- cut. Of its beautiful valley, Sir Charles Dilke says : " The world can show few scenes more winning than Israel's River Valley." Pleasant drives in the vicinity of the village offer many advantages for extended excursions, and afford magnificent views, extending over the rich meadows and fruitful fields, and along the rivers to the distant mountain background. Turning back into the very heart of the northwestern region of the White Mountains, the hamlet of Jefferson Hill is encountered, eight miles southeast of Lancaster. Thomas Starr King says of it, enthusiastically: "Jefferson Hill may, without exaggeration, be called the ?^///w^z //i///? of grandeur in an artist's pilgrimage among the New Hampshire mountains, for at no other point can he see the White Hills themselves in such array and force." From here many tours into the surrounding country, with grand views of the Presidential range of moun- tains, can be made. Visits to Mount Starr King, and Owl's Head, on Cherry Mountain, are especially interesting, as is also the ascent of Mount Adams and the drive to the top of Ran- dolph's Hill. The invasion into the ranks of the gigantic cluster of beautiful mountains, the Presidential Range, is thus made. A thousand wonders of the mountain-world lie open to the tourist in his rambles among these lofty peaks. The Lakes of the Clouds, five thousand feet above the sea, between Mounts Washington and Monroe ; the Falls of the Ammonoosuc River, 94 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. which rises here, and descends over two thousand feet in the first three miles of its course ; that stupendous declivity, Tuckerman's Ravine, with its wonderful snow-arch, formed by the solidification of the ponderous masses of snow driven into it by the winter storms, and filling it, while the mountain streams, passing beneath the icy cupola, carry off the snowy contents beneath, leaving the ice-arch supported by the huge boulders of the ravine ; the castellated ridge of Mount Jefferson, that invincible fortress of nature's own construction ; the Great Gulf, that terrible yet fascinating gorge, with its wide-split crevasses, from which the encircling mountains appear to ascend, as if out of the mighty depths of the earth itself; Hermit Lake, King's Ravine, the Alpine Garden, — all these, and many other, points of interest awe and inspire with wonder, and delight the visitor. Mount Washington, the giant of the mountain range, is the highest ])oint on the North Atlantic coast, its lofty peak rising to an altitude of sixty-two hundred and ninety feet above the level of the sea. Its summit has the arctic climate Echo Lake. FROM "THE HEART OF THE WHITK MOUNTAINS," PUBLISHED BY IIAKPER v "URING the last few years all that region of country comprising Northern Georgia, Western North Carolina, portions of South Carolina, and Florida, has been steadily growing in favor among that large class of people who from choice or necessity wish to escape the rigor of a northern climate. *The number of those to seek the balmy air of Florida from February to April was greater this year than ever before, and it will be still greater in 1884. To leave snow and frost in the North, with the thermometer near about zero, and be sitting fifty hours later in a shady nook of some Southern piazza with the same thermom- eter all alive at 86°, a tender, wanton breeze ruffling the bo- som of a lake, so far away that no man would ever walk to it — that is if he were as lazy as he ought to be in such an at- mosphere — and half-open eyes, catching a glimpse of sun- filled ways, brooded palms, and swaying, blossom-dotted vines, how easy and natural to not only picture the distant spiraea arrayed in white and green, but also to place it in the midst of a velvety lawn, shaded by full-foliaged trees and broken by circles of flow- ers. It is a translation that makes one wealthy, affable and sociable, and leads him to forget yesterday. Oddly-shaped Florida is as a rule the first objective point of the traveller south, a country Mouth of the okiawaha. on the edge of the tropics, whose everglades, swamps, and strange rivers bordered by luxu- riant vegetation give one an impression of the freaks of nature run wild. Jacksonville, the largest city and capital of Florida, on the St. John's River, about twenty-five miles from the mouthy is modelled on Northern plans, with shady streets crossing at right angles. It is a popular stopping-place and enjoys a busy winter season. The equable temperature is a charm' in itself, while there are many pleasant excursions on the river and good views on the fine shell roadways. Those who must have the city as a resort may linger, but to get an idea of tropical scenery one must go by steamboat down the St. John's. Beyond Jacksonville, three (103) I04 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. hundred miles from its source, the river rolls along, now a stream a half mile wide, and now a lake two or perhaps six miles wide— the low banks netted over with a growth all its own,— a jungle of vines clambering over thickets, and on the hammocks rows of the cotton-wood, the juniper, which sweetens and preserves the waters that glimmer black and deep in the half- hidden recesses, the red cedar, the sweet gum, the white and black ash, the redo- lent magnolia, the water-oak, and the glistening, richly- dressed palmettoes — and at their feet a maze of shrubbery, amongst which the azalea, the sensitive plant, the sumach, the agave, the nettle, and the poppy are prominent. All these laden thickets are bound together by running arms and tendrils of the fox- grape, while the woodbine and bigno- nia clamber up the great trees and nod in the breeze above. On a jutting cape the heron and the crane pensively yet know- ingly eye the steamer at a safe distance ; a spJash in the depths beyond marks the spot where a turtle has dropped from a log, or tells that the grinning alligator has taken the hint sent from the chambers of a half dozen re- volvers and "will see you later." Along the river side at intervals are homes lying amongst handsome shade-trees, inviting landing- points, and villages and towns. Some eleven miles above Jacksonville Mulberry Grove is passed, a charming spot for a picnic. A few miles farther on is Mandarin, the winter home of Mrs. The Suwanee River. HEALTH RESORTS OE THE SOCTH. ■05 Harriet Beecher-Stowe; then past the high Magnolia Point, and into Green Cove Springs, whose clear green and limpid waters rush out at the rate of three thousand gallons a minute, and are overhung by streamers of gray moss and mistletoe depending from the branches of the encircling oaks; by Picolata, with its old Spanish memories, and on the other side an ancient fort; by Tocoi and several little landings, road stations and orange groves, to Pilatka, the largest town on the wa^^, with a climate made to order and comforts for the invalid. Above Pilatka nature runs wild and frolics everywhere, while the river rolls along in modera- tion till, just above Welaka and twenty-five miles from Pilatka, it widens into Little Lake George, four miles wide and seven miles long, and then into Lake George, twelve miles wide and eighteen miles long. There is scarcely a lovelier sheet of water in the world than this lake, while the entrance and the exit are all its own. The surface is dotted with islets that are bowers of vines and flowers, where the creepers run down to the water's edge and repeat their grace and exquisite colors in the mirror below ; and here and there are islands under cultivation, with the golden spheres hanging from the midst of the rich, dark green foliage of the orange groves. Around the curves and on the shores the scene is filled by the pelican, the heron, the curlew or the loon, and the flight of brightly plumaged birds, while throughout the clumps of trees the gentle breeze wafts the sweet notes of Southern songsters. Leaving this beautiful spot and pass- ing a succession of forts and landings. Blue Spring, forty miles above, is reached, where mineral waters gush Wakulla Spring. out in a strong stream, so clear that the fish can be seen darting about below the shadow of the boat. Further south is Lake Monroe, twelve miles long and five wide, with Mellonville on one side and Enterprise, the head of regular steamboat navigation and a popular resort, on the other. Twenty-five miles south of Pilatka, opposite Welaka, the Ocklawaha, after flowing three hun- dred miles, empties into the St. John's. There are no banks to this peculiar stream, which is but a channel through a long series of lakes and cypress swamps. The funny cranky little steamboat puff's into the cypress-shaded opening and winds its way along a river whose only boundaries are blazes on the trunks of the towering trees. The hull bumps against butts of the cypresses and the hidden stumps, and the experience in this line of navigation is odd and original in itself. Curving around the densely wooded turns one may see ahead a mound 8 io6 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. covered with the tall, slender palmettoes, from whose branches sway gray, fine mosses, and some- times rods and rods of figured patches of swaying, beautifully flowered convolvuluses. Another turn and the boat swings into a green-canopied retreat, where the interlaced and tangled veg- etation overhead shuts out the sunlight and makes a dark cavern below. At the other side on a dead cypress in a solemn row sit a number of buzzards, waiting for nature to add the final touches to a dead alligator before the feast. The swamps on each side abound in birds of many varieties; the water-turkey or snake- bird, hiding his body amongst the foliage, with his long neck and head protruding, or eluding the hunter by dropping into the water and diving to safety ; and the white crane, conspicuous and effective in the back- ground. This latter bird has a penchant for juvenile reptiles, and to most it is an event for congratulation when from his sunny bed on a dried palmetto leaf a slimy little imp is picked, to be gently started on the downward slide to the crane's interior. Here too is the paradise of the alligator, which from the wayside winks his piggish eyes as the rifle-ball rattles along his mailed side, or bids farewell to the cypress trees as some experienced sportsman sends a leaden messenger into the vulnerable point in the armor. Sometimes, as the weird little craft bumps along around the " cypress knees," the tangled moss above opens and from the blue sky without the light pours in and flecks the boat in a thousand sunbeams, while the cranes rise up and trail away with flapping wing';, the snakes and turtles whisk down to homes beneath the surface, and the brilliant-plumaged paroquets scream as they dart off into the depths. When night comes on blazing pine-knots in the swing- ing cranes on each side of the boat light up the dark channel, and as the rays par- tially illuminate the tall, moss-decked trees around and beyond, strange spectres and grotesque ghosts arise and with supernatural air wave their gaunt arms in beckoning or in despair. One hundred and forty miles from the mouth of the Ocklawaha is the marvellous Silver Spring. Its bosom is a splendid polished mirror, a quarter of a mile wide, its depths as clear as finest crystal for sixty feet down. The steamboat on the surface- rests on an inverted fac simile, and every tree, twig, vine and rock is reproduced in the beautiful pool. The floor of this basin is silver sand, studded with curious figures in pale green-tinted lime Grand Chasm, Tugaloo River. HEA 1.77/ RESORTS OF T7IE SOTT/f. 107 crystals. A row across the pool is ever to be remembered. Every object that has been dropped into the water by preceding visitors lies in the silver setting, a rich emerald gem. At one place a barely discernible bubbling points out the spot from which the water gushes out, thousands of gallons, every moment. A stone dropped toward the slight ledge of limestone rock twenty- five feet below, is suddenly thrown in a curved line nearly to the surface by the rush of the spring from under the rock. A turn of the boat around the corner into the sunlight and one can scarcely believe that there is anything between his craft and the sharp silhouette on the sands below. The river may be followed for some ninety' miles farther, past some picturesque and lovely lakes, into the remote wilderness, where frost rarely penetrates, and sugar-cane tassels. Extending southward, on the east side of the peninsula, for nearly a hundred and fifty miles from the lower end of Mosquito Inlet, and separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of land, runs Indian River, a long la- goon or arm of the sea. For thirty miles the St. John's and the Indian River run in parallel lines, ten miles apart. The wa- ter of the lagoon is salt, and is rich in fish of every kind, includ- ing the delicious pompano, and abounds with rare oysters and turtles. A belt of evergreen woods marks the eastern side, and tempers the winds to the rheumatic and consumptive, who "find in this country the needed quiet and tonic. In parts of the Indian country bears and deer may be hunted, while an abundance of smaller game give ample employment Toecoa Fails, Northern Georgia. to the sportsman. The region on the western side ii fertile and but awaits enterprise and capital to make it bloom. One of the most developed parts of the State is '* Middle Florida," the section surrounding the capital, Tallahassee, one of the most pleasant cities of the South, resting on an elevation and fanned by the breezes from the Gulf. About fifteen miles from the city is one of the chief io8 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. wonders of the State, Wakulla Spring, which sends off a river from its single outburst. The experience of Silver Spring may be here renewed, — the same lime-impregnated, thrillingly transparent water, and the same mosaics of graduated green hues. The basin is narrower than that of Silver Spring, but in one particular more impressive, being one hundred and six feet deep. Fifty feet below the surface one may see a great ledge of white rock, from beneath which the fish swim out. You look down past the uppe: part of this ledge, down, down through the miraculous lymph, which impresses you at once as an abstraction and as a concrete sub- stance, to the white concave bottom, where you can plainly see a sort of trouble in the ground. As the water bursts from its mysterious channel one feels more than ever that sensation of depth itself wrought into a substantial embodi- ment. Proceeding from this spring, the Wakulla pours into St. Mark's River, a mysterious and picturesque stream, which at the Natural Bridge disappears into the earth for the space of fifty feet. In " West Florida" there are many points of interest and spots where the invalid may re- cuperate. The principal cities are Pensacola and Appalachicola, the former situated on Pensacdla Bay, a body of water of some two hundred ■^quaie miles area, and the latter at the point where the river of the same name empties into Appalachicola Bay. The climate and position of both places are all that could be desired, while there are picturesque ruins and forts about the former city. At the southern extremity of Floiida, on an island of the same name, is Key West, next to Jacksonville the largest city in Florida. The island is seven miles long, from one to two miles wide, and eleven feet above the sea. It is interest- ing as being of coral formation, a fact that modifies the mode of living in many ways. In various parts of the South there are cities which have a national reputation as winter health resorts. Foremost amongst these is St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States. Its history is interesting and romantic, carrying one back to the Middle Ages and the times when Spanish cavaliers ventured across the great deep in search for Eldorado and the fountain of eternal youth. "The aspect of St. Augustine," says Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, " is quaint and strange, in harmony with its romantic history. It has CuUisaja Falls, from the Chasm. HEALTH RESORTS OF THE SOUTH. 109 no pretensions to architectural beauty, and yet it is impressive from its unlikeness to anything else in America. It is as if some little, old, dead-alive Spanish town, with its fort and gate- way and Moorish bell-towers had broken loose, floated over here and got stranded on a sand- bank. Here you see the shovel-hats and black gowns of priests ; the convent with gliding figures of nuns ; and in the narrow, crooked streets meet dark-browed people, with great Spanish eyes and coal-black hair. The current of life here has the indolent, dreamy stillness that characterizes life in old Spain. In Spain, when you ask a man to do anything, instead of answering as we do, * In a minute,' the invariable reply is, 'In an hour;' and the growth and progress of St. Au- gustine have been according. There it stands alone, isolated, connected by no good roads or navigation with the busy living world. ' ' The streets are narrow, and consequently in that warm climate shaded and draughty. A vehicle is rarely seen on the streets, and the shifting sand lies over the bro- ken shell-concrete that for- merly paved the way. On each side are old Spanish houses, built of coquina stone, a pecu- liar conglomeration of fine shells and sand, which are first stuccoed and then whitewash- ed, while the quaint hanging balconies of the second stories almost touch from side to side. In the newer parts of the city are modern dwellings and ho- tels, and many elegant win- ter villas. At the northeast end of the town and fronting to the sea is the old fort of San Marco, built of coquina. It was begun in 1656, and accord- ing to the inscription, hand- somely cut in the stone under the arms of Spain, was finished one hundred years thereafter. It is a royal old pile. Its castellated battlements, its heavy bastions guarded by frowning guns, its lofty and imposing sally-ports encircled by the royal Spanish arms, its moat, drawbridge, and portcullis, its round and carved sentry-boxes at each prominent parapet-angle, its high lookout tower, and its time- marked and moss-grown, massive walls, make a fit exterior for the heavy casemates within, the dark passages, gloomy vaults, and hidden dungeons, the ruined Romish chapel, with its ornate portico, and inner altar, and holy-water niches; and one as he rambles through this Canyon of the Cataleuehe. OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. relic of departed ages dreams of knights in armor charging up to the walls, hears the solemn chanting of friars, and the rude laughter of the rough soldiers, and in the depths of the dungeons looks for a decaying skeleton, and listens for the clanking of rusty chains. The entire ocean-front of the city is protected by the Sea Wall, running from the water battery of the fort southward a mile. A delightful moonlight promenade is along the four feet wide granite coping of this wall. The Plaza de la Constitucion, a fine public square, with seats about it, lies in the centre of the town. Fronting on the square among other buildings is the striking old Catholic Cathedral. It has a quaint Moorish belfry, with four bells dating bark to 1682, and a clock so placed as to form a perfect cross. Tiiere are a number of other interesting and imposing buildings in the old city, and the lover of antiquities may find ample opportunity to gratify his taste. All about the city are pleasant points to which excursions are made, and a charming drive leads out St. George Street through the city gate, a relic of the old Spanish wall, with its carved towers, loop-holes and sentry boxes, forming a pictur- esque structure. The climate is that which prevails through- out the favored State, which, though ten degrees lower than Southern Italy, is so in- fluenced by the counter-cur- rents in the ocean as to main- tain an equable temperature no higher than that of the country across the sea. A city with a history is Charleston, South Carolina. Its name has figured in the annals of every war, from the proud day that saw the British balls sink in the palmetto logs of Fort Moultrie and the hostile ships sail away defeated, to the sad hour when Fort Sumter was fired upon. The .bright sunny winters, and a yearly mean temperature of sixty-six degrees draw many visitors, — the sick, who find here a delightful climate and the needed comforts of a city, and the gay, who make the year round a perpetual spring. There are many interesting drives along the Ashley and the Cooper rivers, and around Sullivan's Island. In the suburbs of the city are a number of old planters' houses, Drayton Hall, Middleton Place, and The Oaks beir^g especially notable, with their elegant lawns and the evidences of former splendor, on Sugar Fork Falls. HEALTH RESORTS OE THE SOUTH. which War laid a rude and unsparing hand. Magnolia Cemetery is lovely in shrubbery and flowers, and holds the remains of several distinguished men. The town itself has imposing public buildings, and some old and attractive churches, — amongst others the venerable St. Michael's, built in 1752, with tall belfry, holding sweet chimes; and St. Philip's, by who^e walls John C. Calhoun is buried. Interesting trips maybe made to the rich "Phosphate Mines," along the Ashley and Bull rivers, and to the forts and islands in the harbor. The climate and conditions of Savannah and Augusta are very similar to those of Charles- ton, and the three cities are much resorted to by consumptives and other invalids who desire to remain within the region of postal delivery. Savannah occupies a bluff on the river some forty feet high, running back to and including a portion of a plateau in the rear of the city. McDowell's Hill, French Broad River. There are twenty-four parks within the limits, and the whole city abounds in trees, shrubbery, and flower gardens, that bloom throughout the year. In the southern section is Forsyth Park, having an area of about forty acres. A notable object is the Pulaski Monument. There are lovely drives leading to White Bluff, Montgomery, Beaulieu, Isle of Hope, and Thunderbolt out on "The Salts." The finest drive, and one of the most picturesque in the country, is that to Bonaventure Cemetery, on Warsaw River, and about four miles from the city. It was once the residence of the Tatnalls, an old English family. The beautiful city of Augusta, the third in population in Georgia, lies at the head of navigation on the Savannah River, on a broad and picturesque sweep. The city is handsomely laid out, and is famous for its fine avenues, the principal one, ^-reen Street, being one hundred and sixty-eight feet wide, having a grass OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. space in the centre lined on each side by a row of shade trees. The Fair Grounds, occupying forty-seven acres, are just outside the city. On the high hills some three miles from Augusta is Summerville, a handsome suburb, where many Northerners own villas. Horse cars connect with the city, and many find this quiet and attractive little place preferable to the more populous points. There is a town of the same name some twenty-two miles from Charleston, on the South Carolina Railroad. On the line of the same road, sixteen miles from Augusta, and one hundred and twenty from Charleston, on a sandy plateau six or seven hundred feet above the sea, lies Aiken, the most frequented winter resort in the United States. There is scarcely any soil, and everywhere in the town is clean white sand. The air of Aiken is drier than that of any other prominent Southern resort, and in the matter of equability of temper- ature is surpassed only by San Diego. The mean temperature is as follows: Spring, 63.4°; summer, 79.1°; autumn, 63.70°; winter, 46.4°; for the year, 63.11^°. The average rainfall, as follows: Spring, 11.97 inches; summer, 13.89; autumn, 7.34; winter, 7.16; for the year, 40.36 inches. These data are from the record of 1870. The surroundings of Aiken are as tranquil as the temperature is equa- ble. Straight vistas run out over the sands through the sombre pine j woods that encircle the town. There are no hills to climb, no -falls to visit, no commanding views in the neighborhood one must see. The houses are the wide-porticoed typical Southern houses, with a chimney sustaining each side, a sunny, open yard, flowering vines, piles of roses, and the general hos- pitable, welcoming air. The little negroes drive a thriving trade in the sale of the fifty varieties of sand that are found here, ranging in color from green to brownish red, with now and then traces of blue. There is no business but that of Everything is peaceful and quiet, and the Cascades near Warm Springs. entertaining the guests, and no noise of traffic chief charm of life comes from the beauty of the clear winter days. The patient having in his sojourn in sunny climes become convalescent, will enjoy the exercise and tonic of a ramble in a mountainous country, and nowhere in the Appalachian system could he find a better field than in the northern districts of South Carolina, North Georgia, and Western North Carolina. One of the remarkable wonders of South Carolina is Table Mountain, (4300 feet high,) with a barricade of perpendicular cliffs, one thousand feet high on one side, which present a grand appearance from the wooded glens below. From the summit of the mountain may be had a fine view of the conspicuous Caesar's Head. The Falls of Slicking, a marvellous series of cascades and rapids, lie at the base of Table Mountain. Down the declivity two streams rush, joining at a point called the "Trunk," from which a most charming view of Caesar's Head, Bald Mountain, Pinnacle Rock, and adjacent peaks may be obtained. The two streams fall over seventy feet at this point into a glen, wild and HEALTH RESORTS OF THE SOUTH. 113 picturesque as any on the continent. The pretty mountain stream, the Keowee, runs through the rare little Jocasse Valley, and varies its course in a leap a t the White Water Cataracts. From Clarksville, Ha- bersham County, Geor- gia, there are several roads to the mountain country. A few miles from this town are the celebrated To ceo a Falls, where a stream comes through a chasm in the hills to tumble perpendicularly over a great rock from a height of one hundred and eighty-five feet, and upon reaching the bottom is dispersed in mist, which, visible to the eye against the dark background, waves to and fro in a weird manner. Tal- lulah Falls are distant twelve miles from Clarksville. Tallulah "the Terrible," a large stream, here breaks through the last obstacle in its eastward course, and for two miles, through a gorge of twelve hundred feet in depth and of unsur- passed grandeur, is dashed over deep falls, over great rocks, and broken into cascades in the wildest manner. It ■ requires steady nerves and strong mus- cles to visit the differ- ent points of interest along the edge of the chasm, or to scramble down its deep and rugged face to behold the mad struggle of the troubled river. The Falls are made up of numerous cataracts,— the Lodore, the Tempesta, the Oceana, and the Serpentine "Watauga Falls. 114 OUR AMERICAN RESORTS. among others. Two notable points are the Pulpit and the Trysting Rock; and the wild chasm is filled with imposing granite walls and boulders, leaping waters and deep gorges, which give it high rank in the scenery of our country. The Valley of Naobochee, the Falls of Eastatotia and Amicalolah, and Nickojack Cave are other points to be visited. A ride along the Richmond and Danville Railroad gives one an excellent idea of the scenery of the country. The mountain country just gone over, however, pales before the grand and impressive "Land of the Sky," in Western North Carolina. The Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky, two great mountain chains, encircle a plateau two hundred and fifty miles long and fifty broad, which is crossed by four transverse ranges, the Black, the Balsam, the Cullowhee, and the Nantsahala. The Black Mountains are the most famous, and include Mount Mitchell, the loftiest summit east of the Mississippi. The centre from which the route into the mountains diverge is Asheville, 2250 feet above the sea, and from this pretty town, with a charming climate, one may visit the Linville Gorge, with masses of broken, tumbled granite rocks A Glimpse of French Broad River. and beetling cliffs, 2000 feet high, with a river churning and dashing the ragged way, and traverse the picturesque Swannanoa Gap, around Cassair's Head into Cashier Valley, to climb the noble Whiteside Mountain, probably the most striking peak in the State. Five thousand feet high, its face is a tremendous curve of white rock, eighteen hundred feet high and two miles long. The face, at a distance apparently smooth, is in reality worn and eroded, having many peculiar recesses, amongst others the Devil's Supreme Court-house. One of the loveliest glens is the famous Hickory Nut Gap, through which the French Broad River runs past many a curiously carved pillar. The climbing of Mounts Pisgah and Mitchell is a matter of course, and the scenes from the summits repay the toil of the ascent. At the top of the latter lies buried in his monument Professor Mitchell, in honor of whom the mountain is named. A cairn of stones, to which each visitor adds his mite, is slowly building over the last resting-place of him who, while exploring the great mountain, was dashed to death in one of its many chasms. The CuUisaja, the Sugar Fork, and the Wautauga Falls are all FfEALTfi RESORTS OF THE SOUTrf. ,.- charming cascades, and some of the most beautiful scenery is found along the course of the Richmond and Danville Road, by the Canon of the Catalouche, and on the shores of the French Broad River. No one intending to travel South should expect to find a Paradise, and be enraptured everywhere. There are times and conditions that make many a trip sadly disappointing ; but "to him who in the love of Nature" goes abroad, this section of our great land will afford the widest opportunities to view her in some of her sweetest and most charming moods. The greatest mistake may be made by invalids who seek resorts indiscriminately, without regard to constitution or circumstances ; and many poor creatures in the last stages of fatal disease are torn from the comforts of a home to die amidst strangers. In all cases a competent physician should be consulted. The cities enumerated in the body of this article are, how- ever, helpful in almost all case^ requiring pure air, a steady temperature, and peaceful, quieting influences. i liaises and Rit/eFS. " How beautiful the water is ! To me 'tis wondrous fair — No spot can ever lonely be If water sparkle there : It hath a thousand tongues of mirth, Of grandeur or delight, And every heart is gladder made When water greets the sight." O nearly all mankind water hath its charms. The very mention of a beautiful lake, nth its settings of mountain steeps, woods and rocks, or a deep-running, winding iver, with its banks of verdure and flowers and shady nooks, is a suggestion of beau- tiful thoughts and pleasurable emotions. Moonlight on the water describes the very essence of romance. To the heat-oppressed inhabitants of the parched and dusty city, in July and August, the thought of being embowered in some cool retreat by the side of a lovely and picturesque lake or river is a picture of perfect comfort and earthly bliss. Of these retreats and the beauteous waters which make them attractive our own land has a bountiful supply. First of all is the great chain of lake son our northern "boundary, which clasp hands and extend from Minnesota to the shores of the Atlantic. These five sister lakes — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario — which pour their waters through the St. Lawrence to the ocean, are the most extensive inland seas in the world, and each has its distinguishing characteristics of scenery and suggestion. They all abound in features of interest to the tourist, and many delightful summer resorts are located on their borders. Lake Superior, the largest and most mysterious of the chain, whose waters are daily churned into a foam by the paddle-wheels of steamboats, is only^half explored in its northern shores, and strange and fairy-like tales are daily told by fur-traders and hunters of gold and silver, rubies and amethysts, copper and tin, to be found in the trackless regions washed by its waters. The celebrated Pictured Rocks, stretching from Munesing Harbor eastward along the southern coast, are among the wonders of the New World. Lake Michigan is perhaps the most beautiful of the series. Nothing is more soothing than the soft air wafted over its cool, sea-green waters ; nothing more delight- ful than a sight of its beautiful islands, shifting fogs, and unsurpassed Straits of Mackinaw. The Island of Mackinaw, a spot sacred to the Indians of the lakes, is scarcely lacking in any of the beauty or interest to be found in the Yosemite or Yellowstone national pleasure-grounds. Perhaps the most romantic of the chain is the deep blue Huron, with its wild shores and far- stretching woodland solitudes. Sault Ste. Marie, connecting it with Superior, is but little in- ferior in beauty to Mackinaw. No place in our country is so fraught with incidents relating to our national colonial life as Lake Erie. The spirit of Pontiac haunts the mouth of the Detroit River. On the shores of the lake every tree in the woods, as the winds sigh through its branches, whispers the name of Tecumseh, and his farewell to his British allies, with his declaration to lay his bones on the battle-field without retreating. The renowned resort of Put-in-Bay reminds the world of the immortal Perry and his famous dispatch, "We have met the enemy and they are ours;" and call to mind the dying words of Captain Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship," which Perry inscribed upon a flag, flung to the breeze from the mast-head of his vessel. Anthony Wayne's laconic field-order, " Charge the d d rascals," is remembered at the pronunciation of the name of Prcsque Isle. Charming and sublime On- tario, though in a degree dulled by the sublimity of Niagara Falls and the picturesque loveliness (ii6) LAKES AND RIVERS. 117 of the Thousand Islands, is surrounded by natural scenery of surpassing beauty, and forms a fitting climax to this sublime and beautiful series of great inland seas. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The Northwest has, within the past ten years, developed many beautiful spots wherein the warm months of summer can be pleasantly passed, and where health and strength may be re- stored to the invalid. The States of Minnesota and Wisconsin have led the van in the number of these places offering attractions of scenery, climate, recreation and amusement. The resorts of Wisconsin, because they are so easily reached from the great centre — Chicago — and because they furnish all the attractions to be desired by the most fastidious, have become more noted than those in any other section, and many of them are rapidly acquiring a reputation that may well be envied by the older places of resort in the East. For all the many rea- sons that have made Wisconsin popular to the summer saunterer, has Lake Geneva taken the lead of Western resorts. It presents all the advantages that could be asked for as reganls climate, scenery, good society, and means of recreation and amusement. Lake Geneva lies forty-four miles southwest of Milwaukee, and sixty- two miles northwest of Chicago, as a bird flies The lake is nine miles long by about two wide. Its depth is very great, and in places no bottom has been found. It has no inlet, but is supplied entirely by pure spring water gushing from the hillsides along its picturesque shores. No slough or malarial pools are found about the lake, and a weed has never been seen in the lake, and no insects and flies, so common in weedy and marshy lakes, are here found. Its waters are so clear and trans- parent that the bottom, as well as fish and other objects, can easily be seen at a depth of thirty-five feet. Nothing but charming pebble and boulder shore-line is to be seen, and in places these boulders line the gracefully curving shore for miles in length, lying as neatly as if a master mason had fitted them in the line of beauty. The scenery is nowhere wild; it is such as painters love to delineate and lovers of art delight to view. The ever-changing hue of the waters from deep blue to ocean green, is, in itself, an enjoyable study, even to old acquaint- ances. Over the lake itself, in the last fallen hours of the day, hangs a curious purple-gray, making the freshly-painted boats and wooded banks seem like the pictures in a dream. In the shadows of the grove springs " That delicate forest flower, With scented breath and look so like a smile, The moss-clad violet, fragrant and concealed, . Like hidden charity." Summer Residence of N. K. Fairbank, of Chicago. OTA' AMERICAN RESORTS. Lake Geneva is different from other Western resorts in that it is distinctly a family watering- place. Its visitors come in June and stay until October. The entire twenty-five miles of its beautiful shore is occupied by the residences of wealthy citizens of Chicago and St. Louis, for the most part. The majority of these houses are expensive and elegant, and have been built at an expenditure of from twenty-five thousand to a quarter of a million dollars. The amount of money invested in these summer homes will foot up among the millions, and they give a character and prestige to Lake Geneva possessed by no other western resort. The lake has been artificially stocked with all kinds of game fish, and the fishing in the proper season is excellent and free to all. It is particularly noted as being the home of the " cisco," a species of white-fish found nowhere else in the world. In the full of the moon in Tune, these fish come to the sur- face, and for a few days thousands of them are caught with a hook. They then disappear and none have ever been seen during thebalance of the year. Dur- ing the " run " of the fish, the air is filled with a pe- culiar fly, which disappears with the ciscoes, not to be again seen till the next year. The fish caught from the lake are very gamy, par- ticularly the black bass. Dozens of small lakes fairly full of fish are located within a few miles from Lake Geneva, and are easily reached in an hour's drive. There are five public steam r; on the lake, which can carry from fifty to six hundred passengers. Besides these, many of the summer residents own steam yachts, which have the reputation of being the finest of their size in the country. The average is 75 feet long and cost from fifteen to thirty thousand dollars. Speed is the chief requisite of the private yachts. Sail yachts are numerous and sailing is very much enjoyed, many regattas taking place during the season. The hotel and boarding-house accommodations are ample and reasonable. The place has always been free from the charges of extortion often heard in connection with pleasure resorts. It has been called " the New- Dort of the West," and it is to Chicago what Newport is to New York. Summer Residence of Julian S. Rumsey. LAKES AND RIVF.RS. 119 Lake George, New York. This unrivalled gem of American lakes is found at the southwestern margin of the great Adirondack Wilderness, thirty-one miles north of Saratoga, and two hundred and eleven miles from New York. It is thirty-four miles long, running north and south, and varies from two to four miles in width. The lake is literally embowered in beautifully-wooded hills, which in many instances rise abruptly from its margin and attain an altitude of more than two thousand feet. Its pellucid waters come, entirely from the mountain brooks, and springs coming up from the bottom of the lake. Lake George is studded with many small islands- one for each day in the year, with one accommodating little fellow, which is«understood to be held in reserve for the 29th of February. Lake George is made interesting by history and legend as well as by the great beauty of its scenery, for which it is renowned throughout the the world. The battle of Lake George is a prominent event in our colonial history ; and the inhabitants, Hawkeye, Chin-gach-cook, Uncas, Alice, and Cora Munro, the creations of the Lake George — Ths Narrows. FROM STODDARD'S GUIDE TO LAKE GEORGE. genius of our great novelist, Cooper, will never be dispossessed of it, but will ever remain associated with it in the minds of all lovers of American literature. There can be no more charming excursion than a passage up and down this American Como affords. The wild, picturesque shores, the pretty little bays, the fascinating islands, the soft glamour of the water, and the towering bills, make an enchanting panorama. Caldwell, the principal resort, is .sit- uated at the head of the lake, and the village of Baldwin at the foot, where it empties into Lake Champlain. Across the point of the Lake from Caldwell is Crosbyside, quite a popular resort. Just east of Caldwell, and commanding the most beautiful view of the lake and its surroundings, is the far-famed Fort William Henry Hotel. Numerous other resorts are located along the shores of the lake, on the waters of which a regular line of steamboats is run, making three trips daily between Caldwell and Baldwin, touching at all of the intermediate landings. Caldwell may be reached via Delaware and Hudson Canal Railroad and its connections. OUR AMERrCAiY RESORTS. Otsego Lake, New York. This beautiful lake, situated in Otsego, County, New York, is about nine miles long and one to one and a half mile wide. J. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, in his " Deer-slayer," thus describes the lake and surrounding hills: " On a level with the point lay a broad sheet of water, so placid and limpid that it resembled a bed of the pure mountain atmosphere compressed into a setting of hills and woods. At its northern end it was bounded by an isolated mountain ; lower land falling off east and west, gracefully relieving the sweep of the outline; still the character of the country was mountainous: high hills or low mountains rising abruptly from the water on quite nine-tenths of its circuit. But the most strikin