Below is the
city, its houses, small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas
boxes; whilst the slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here
and there are thick clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is
partly hidden from view by a peak, which rises directly to the west,
and is separated from that on which one is standing by a deep and
thickly wooded valley. Descending, by means of a narrow winding path,
one passes through dense clumps of hickory, chestnut, mountain ash,
and walnut trees, whose strong lateral branches afford ample
protection from the sun, and at the same time furnish playgrounds to
innumerable bright-eyed squirrels. Further down one comes upon gentle
elms, succeeded by sassafras and locust--these, in their turn,
succeeded by the softer linden, red bud, catalpa, and maple; and at
the foot of the declivity, and in the bottom of the valley, wild
shrubbery, interspersed with silver willows, and white poplars. Still
following the path down the vale, in a southerly direction, one, at
length, finds oneself in an amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by
trees and bushes of a still greater variety; here and there, a
gigantic and much begnarled oak; here, a triple-stemmed tulip tree of
some eighty feet in height, its glossy, vivid green leaves and profuse
blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and splendour;
there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall and
slender silver birch.
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