WHAT WE LEARNED BY CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN.
Mountains are higher than hills. We might call a mountain a grown-up hill. Mountains are also rougher than hills. They have rugged cliffs and deeper canons.
We climbed a high mountain once. Would you like to know what we saw? We started from the valley where the land is smooth and the river flows slowly. All the land was covered with grain-fields and orchards. The people there are farmers.
As we traveled in the direction of the mountains the valley became narrower and the land not so smooth. We soon got among the foothills. These are little hills at the foot of the mountains.
,,We left the grain-fields behind, but there were still many orchards to be seen. After a time the hills became too rough and steep for the orchards and 'we saw about us herds of cattle feeding. Cattle can find something to eat where the land is too rough for the farmer.
The river now flowed in a narrow valley or cation. At one point there was a pretty waterfall. The river tumbled over a ledge of rock with a loud noise. The river has been at work for a long time digging the cation in which it flows. Where the water fall is, it found some very ha'rd rock, so it jumped over the rock instead of cutting it away.
As we went up the mountain we found that the climate changed. We seemed in a strange coun try for everything was dif ferent. In the valley the spring flowers had gone. Here they were thick on every side and there were many which we had never seen before. The days and nights were cooler. It seemed like spring. In truth it was spring, for winter lasts longer and spring comes later in the mountains than it does in the valleys.
The trees as well as the plants interested us. There were pines and firs that filled the air with a pleasant odor. Where the rough bark was broken we found the resinous sap. How sticky it was. That which .had become dried made good chewing gum.
We passed by a mine where the men were digging deep in the rocks for gold. We saw the ore come up out of the mine and go to the stamp mill. Thump, thump, thump! went the iron stamps as they crushed the rocks and set free the gold.
By and by we came to a clear lake. There were forests and rocks around it. The water was so quiet that we could see everything on the shore reflected in it. We learned much from the lake, but you will hear about it in another chapter.
lip we went, for we were still far from the top of the mountains. After a time the trees became smaller and at last we stood upon the bare, rocky slopes. Mosses grew upon many of the rocks and in warm nooks there were low bushes. The air was cooler than in the little valleys and along the brooks the spring grass had hardly begun to grow.
You would hardly have thought it was the month of July, for snowbanks lay here and there on the shady slopes. How strange to be able to play snowball in summer! How long and cold the winter must be there! The climate there is much like that in the far north. The plants and animals that live there are similar to those of the north. In climbing the mountain we passed through regions of different climate and productions just as we would do in going from our own home toward the cold north. Does not this seem very strange to you? At last we stood upon the summit of the moun tains. It is so cold and barren there that nothing can .grow. We were very tired, but the view which we got over many miles of country interested us for a long time. We played that it was a great map, and we enjoyed studying it much more than those in the geography.
The mountain slopes down like the roof of a house. We stood as on the ridge of the roof. On the side of the mountain up which we had climbed, the water from the melting snow and the springs, after a long journey, goes down past our valley home. Upon the other of the ridge, or summit of the mountain, the water flows down through another valley far away from ours.
We stood with one foot upon one slope, and one upon the other. The raindrops falling there start away in different directions.
How different their stories will be when they once more reach the ocean. They may never be near each other again.
The ridge on which we stand is called a divide, because it makes the water flow in opposite directions.