Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/177

 The IVhitc and Francovia Mountains.

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��ledges visible. The lower Alps are clothed in green and the upper ones in perennial snow. The Simplon Pass is not nearly so rugged as the Notch. Only in the West among the Rockies is there anything to compare with this. But below, a few miles, we have a view as pleasant as Christian and Hopeful saw from the Delectable Mountains."

"And do we have to pass Doubting castle, as they did?" asked Molly. " I don 't think I should care for their experience with giants and giantesses."

��were seen only at a distance. Glimpses were caught now and then of charming vistas, with the waters of the Saco- gleaming brightly between the trees. No fairer valley can be found in our land than that of the Saco ; and as for skies and sunsets, stop at North Conway and see what cannot be matched in Italy or the Orient.

That is what we did. A broad, level plain, five miles long by three \vide, is the site of the village, which is a quiet and picturesque rural hamlet of the

���MOUNT CARTER, FROM GORHAM.

��"Here are castles and strongholds, but the giants, if there are any, are as helpless as Giant Pope was, who could only sit in the sun and gnaw his finger nails."

The towering cliffs on either side smile like the walls of a prison. We felt a relief when once they were passed, and we found ourselves in the broader val- ley below, stretching wide and green and beautiful in the summer sunshine — the famous meadows of the Saco. All of the savage aspects disappeared or

��average size of countr\' towns.

��Far in

the north towers the lofty Presidential Range, in full sight, the distance soften- ing all harsh and rugged outlines into beautiful curves and combinations, Mount Washington wearing a snowy forehead often through the entire heated term. The swelling summit of Mount Pequakett rises at the northeast of the village, a lone sentinel, guarding the gateway of the mountains with bold and unchanging brow. On the western side extends a long range of rocky hills.

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