Mount Hamilton

“ The mainland is simply a range of mountains which have been at some remote period partly submerged. The land meets the sea in steep cliffs and bold headlands, whose general height is from five hundred to seven hundred feet, with many peaks ranging from nine hundred and fifty to one thousand four hundred and twenty feet, the latter being the height of Mount Hamilton, which rears up just at the back of Lusitania Bay. Evidence of extreme glaciation is everywhere apparent, and numerous tarns and lakes are scattered amongst the hills, the tops of which are barren, wind-swept and weather-worn. ”

“ Already preparations are being made for its reception at Mount Hamilton. The scabrous summit of “Observatory Peak” has been smoothed down to a suitable equality of surface by the removal of 40,000 tons of hard trap rock. Preliminary operations for the erection of a dome, 75 feet in diameter, to serve as its shelter, are in progress. The water-supply has been provided for by the excavation of great cisterns. Buildings are rapidly being pushed forward from designs prepared by Professors Holden and Newcomb. ”

“ A mountain is not a thing that you can put away in your pocket, or hide under the eaves till an accident reveals its whereabouts. Verily our misguided brethren have much to do to make out a case; and, in the firm belief that I am climbing up the highest point of land this side the Rocky Mountains, I begin my journey.
Time was when the ascent of Mount Washington could be justly considered a difficult and dangerous feat ”

“ The peak is very high—quite as high as Mount Arden, but there is another part of the spur higher than it, to which I have given the name of Mount Hugh; further to the west-north-west is a mount, still higher, which I have named Mount Hay. Wind, north-east. It has been very hot to-day.
Thursday, 26th July, Hamilton Spring, McDonnell Range. Started across the ranges to Brinkley Bluff, and camped on the east side. There is still plenty of water in the Hugh, although greatly reduced. The natives have been following our former tracks in great numbers; some of their foot-prints are very large. ”

“ Hamilton’s conduct had at last incurred Charles’s resentment and he was sent, in January 1644, a prisoner to Pendennis Castle, in 1645 being removed to St Michael’s Mount, where he was liberated by Fairfax’s troops on the 23rd of April 1646. Subsequently he showed great activity in the futile negotiations between the Scots and Charles at Newcastle. In 1648, in consequence of the seizure of Charles by the army in 1647, Hamilton obtained a temporary influence and authority in the Scottish parliament over Argyll, and led a large force into England in support of the king on the 8th of July. ”

“ As this mountain is so undoubtedly formed intirely from a plain, I should think my project may give light into the formation of many other mountains, that are at present thought to have been original, and are certainly not so, if their strata correspond with those of the Montagno Nuovo. I should be glad to know whether you think this project of mine will be useful; and, if you do, the result of my observations may be the subject of another letter [16] .
I cannot have a greater pleasure than to employ my leisure hours in what may be of some little use to mankind ”

“ For two or three miles round the mountain raised by this eruption, all is barren, and covered with ashes; this ground, as well as the mountain itself, will in time [Pg 66] certainly be as fertile as many other mountains in its neighbourhood, that have been likewise formed by explosion. If the dates of these explosions could be ascertained, it would be very curious, and mark the progress of time with respect to the return of vegetation, as the mountains raised by them are in different states; those which I imagine to be the most modern are covered with ashes only ”

“ Another proof, that the real seat of the fire of Volcanos [Pg 144] lies even greatly below the general level of the country whence the mountain springs, is, that was it only at an inconsiderable depth below the basis of the mountain, the quantity of matter thrown up would soon leave so great a void immediately under it, that the mountain itself must undoubtedly sink and disappear after a few eruptions. ”

“ I had the pleasure of seeing a well sunk, a few days ago, near my villa, which is, as you know, at the foot of Vesuvius, and close by the sea-side. At twenty-five feet below the level of the sea, they came to a stratum of lava, and God knows how much deeper they might have still found other lavas. The soil all round the mountain, which is so fertile, consists of stratas of lavas, ashes, pumice, and now-and-then a thin stratum of good earth, which good earth is produced by the surface mouldering, and the rotting of the roots of plants, vines, &c. ”

“ The pyramidal shadow of the mountain reached across the whole island, and far into the sea on the other side. I counted from hence forty-four little mountains (little I call them in comparison of their mother Etna, though they would appear great any where else) in the middle region on the Catania side, and many others on the other side of the mountain, all of a conical form, and each having its crater; many with timber trees flourishing both within and without their craters. ”

“ There is no spot, I believe, that could afford a more ample field for curious observations, than the island of Ischia, called Enaria, Inarime, and Pithecusa, by the ancients. I have visited it three times; and this summer passed three weeks there, during which time I examined, with attention, every part of it. Ischia is eighteen [Pg 152] miles in circumference: the whole of its soil is the same as that near Vesuvius, Naples, and Puzzole. There are numberless springs, hot, warm, and cold [41] , dispersed over the whole island, the waters of which are impregnated with minerals of various sorts ”

“ A good mountain man is, of course, a keen observer, but Hamilton possessed also a retentive memory which enabled him in his later years to make valuable contributions326 to the history of the early West, which have been recorded in the proceedings of the Montana Historical Society, in his book My Sixty Years on the Plains, published in 1905, and in the present account, which was published in Forest and Stream in the spring of 1907. ”

“ It rises to the Mountain, as a steep hill is called, from the summit of which there is a very striking view of the city and a picturesque outlook over one of the most fruitful parts of the Dominion, abounding in peach and apple orchards and vineyards. Hamilton is only forty miles from Niagara Falls, and its interest in the Falls is utilitarian as well as artistic and sentimental, for it is the electric power generated at the Falls which drives the works of Hamilton, lights its streets and houses, and supplies the heating power. ”

“ When the American whalemen on the coast saw the summit of Mount Fairweather from the sea, they felt sure that some days of fair weather would follow, hence we have the expressive name which is bestowed upon it. Mount St. 99Elias, with its snow and ice mantle reaching nearly down to sea level, is higher than any elevation in Norway or Switzerland, rising from its base in pyramid form, straight, regular, and massive, to three times the height of our New England giant in the White Mountain range of New Hampshire, namely, Mount Washington. Only the Himalayas and the Andes exceed it in altitude. ”

“ The valley is broad with cup-shaped sides, save where the crowding of the hills has thrust one forward to stand in embarrassed projection. Some twenty miles above Hamilton rises Windless Mountain on the right, guarding from the world the village of Hagar behind it. Northward from Windless lie irregular hills, and between them and the long westward-inclining tumulus of the Cattle Ridge a narrow gorge with a tumbling brook comes down. ”

“ The highest peak of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and, with the exception of a number of peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee, the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains (Map: New Hampshire, J 4) . It rises from the Presidential Range near the centre of the White Mountain group, east of the Crawford Notch, and has an altitude of 6293 feet. It is composed chiefly of granite; its western slope is steep, and on the north and east it is broken by deep gorges. The lower slopes are covered with forest, but the summit is bare and rocky. ”

“ People hurry about as if their lives depended on their speed. "I guess" and "I calculate " are frequently heard, together with "Well posted up," and "A long chalk" and locomotives and steamers whistle all day long. Hamilton is a very Americanised place. I heard of "grievances, independence, and annexation," and, altogether, should have supposed it to be on the other side of the boundary-line.
It is situated on a little lake, called Burlington Bay, separated from Lake Ontario by a narrow strip of sandy shingle. ”

“ Once they paused in their desultory talk and listened to the lovely chorus of a West Indian evening, that low incessant ringing of a million tiny bells. The bells hung in the throats of nothing more picturesque than grasshoppers, serpents, lizards, and frogs so small as to be almost invisible, but they rang with a harmony that the inherited practice of centuries had given them. And beyond was the monotonous accompaniment of the sea on the rocks. Hamilton lived to be an old man, and he never left the West Indies ”

“ It flings itself with smothering caresses about the burly mountains, and stifles them in its close embrace. It trails along the hills, floating in filmy, parting gauze, scattering little flecks of pearl, fringing itself over the hollows, and hustling against a rocky breastwork that bars its onward going. It wreathes upward, curling around the peaks and veiling summits, whose slopes shine white in the unclouded sun. It shuts down gray, dense, sombre, with moody monotone. ”

“ Hamilton, cause, in the astonished traveller, an oblivion of all that he has seen before. If his attention be attracted to the north side of Thebes, by the towering remains that project a great height above the wood of palm-trees, he will gradually enter that forest-like assemblage of ruins, of temples, columns, obelisks, colossi, sphinxes, portals, and an endless number of other astonishing objects, that will convince him at once of the impossibility of a description. On the west side of the Nile, still the traveller finds himself among wonders. ”

“ It was a gray, lowering day, and as darkness came on Hamilton's horse played out, and he told his two companions not to wait, as it had begun to snow, but to keep on towards the north, skirting some particularly rough buttes, and as soon as they struck the road to turn to the right and follow it out to the prairie, where they would find camp; he particularly warned them to keep a sharp look-out, so as not to pass over the dim trail unawares in the dusk and the storm. ”

“ Hamilton Inlet, 250 m. north of the Strait of Belle Isle, is the longest of these bays, with a length of 150 m. and a breadth varying from 2 to 30 m. The surface of the outer portions of the plateau is deeply seamed by valleys, cut into the crystalline rocks by the natural erosion of rivers, depending for their length and depth upon the volume of water flowing through them. The valley of the Hamilton river is the greatest, forms a continuation of the valley of the Inlet and extends 300 m. farther inland, while its bottom lies from 500 to 1500 ft. ”

“ Mount Adams is ascended without difficulty by either its north or south slope. On the east and west faces, the cliffs and ice cascades appall even the expert alpinist. As yet, so far as I can learn, no ascents have been made over these slopes. The southern route is the more popular one. It leads by well-marked trails up from Guler or Glenwood, over a succession of terraces clad in fine, open forest; ascends McDonald Ridge, amid increasing barriers of lava; passes South Butte, a decaying pillar of red silhouetted against the black rocks and white snow-fields ”

“ Hamilton, several years since, had bought a large tract of wooded land on Harlem Heights and built him a house on the ridge. It commanded a view of the city, the Hudson, and the Sound. The house was spacious and strong, built to withstand the winds of the Atlantic, and to shelter commodiously not only his family, but his many guests. The garden and the woods were the one hobby of his life, and with his own hands he had planted thirteen gum trees to commemorate the thirteen original States of the Union. Fortunately his deepest sorrow was not associated with this estate ”

“ The whole Androscoggin River gathers up its strength and plunges through a gorge,—a gateway in the solid rock is regular, as upright, as if man had brought in the whole force of his geometry and gunpowder to the admeasurement and excavation,—plunges, conscious of imprisonment and the insult to its slighted majesty,—plunges with fierce protest and frenzy of rage, breaks against a grim, unyielding rock to dash itself into a thousand whirling waves ”

“ The bin itself was now directly opposite them, a big hopper cut deep in the solid rock and serving the feeder by simple gravity. The feeder pretty well filled its own rocky chamber. A place might have been found beside it for something not too big, but the first man who came down on the lift would have seen it whether he was looking for it or not.
Shearing pointed. A dark opening pierced the rock at one side. Hyrst tried to see into it with his mental eyes, but the "fog" was so dense and bright—
He saw it, an unsubstantial ghostly shadow, but there. ”

“ The Americans were outgeneralled and outnumbered. Their attention was distracted by land and water, while a British detachment, ten thousand strong, crept over the ridge of hills by night, and through the Bedford Pass, overpowering the guards before their approach was suspected. At dawn they poured down upon the American troops, surprising them, not in one direction, but in flank, in rear, and in front. The green woods swarmed with redcoats, and the Hessians acted with a brutality demoralizing to raw troops. Hamilton's little company behaved well, and he was in the thick of the fight all day. ”