I suppose it might have been a region for rattlesnakes,
but I never thought of them. I had never seen such a place in
my life. From the bottom of the gorge where we were, the
opposite mountain side sloped up to a great height; wild,
lonely, green with a wealth of wood, stupendous, as it seemed
to me, in its towering expanse. At our backs, a rocky and
green precipice rose up more steeply yet, though to a lesser
elevation, topped with the grey walls of the old fort, the
other face of which I had seen from our hotel. A wilderness of
nature it was; — wild and stern. I feasted on it. Dr. Sandford
was moving about, looking for something; he helped me over
rocks, and jumped me across morasses, and kept watchful guard
of me; but else he let me alone; he did lot talk; and I had
quite enough without. The strong delight of the novelty, the
freedom, the delicious wild things around, the bracing air,
the wonderful lofty beauty, made me as happy as I thought I
could be. I feasted on the rocks and wild verdure, the mosses
and ferns and lichen, the scrub forest and tangled
undergrowth, among which we plunged and scrambled; above all,
on those vast leafy walls which shut in the glen, and almost
took away my breath with their towering lonely grandeur.
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