The view of the mountain peaks around, as, one after another, according to their height, they are touched by the rays of the rising sun, is very beautiful; and even the dullest mind can scarcely resist the enthusiastic inspiration awakened by the scene. And then, as the sun mounts steadily upward, giving heat as well as light with his cheering rays, the mists below are slowly dispelled, and nature puts on her most bewitching countenance, with her gloomy frowns banished, supplanted by the sweetest smiles.
Such is but a faint description of a sunrise witnessed by the writer. The picture will vary with the changing circumstances, and that which it may be the reader’s fortune to behold, though entirely unlike it, may be none the less beautiful and enchanting.
The old Tip-Top and Summit Houses still stand, together with the buildings of the U. S. Signal Service, the ticket-office and station of the Glen House stage line, with its stables, and the engine house of the railway. The office of _Among the Clouds_, a daily paper, occupies the old Tip-Top House; and in the Signal Service building a band of resolute men brave the rigors of winter in the interests of science, recording the temperature, the velocity of the wind, etc. With the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero, and the wind blowing with a velocity of one hundred and fifty miles an hour, it must require nerves of steel and a hardy constitution to survive the ordeal.
The old bridle path from the Crawford House to the summit is still employed by those who wish to make the ascent, as in the “good old days,” but the favorite method, next to the railroad trip, is by the
The road is eight miles in length, and by skillful engineering has been so built as to rise, on an average, only about one foot in eight, the steepest place being one foot in six, and that for a short distance only, rendering the ascent easy and comfortable. Passengers by way of Gorham, on the Grand Trunk, reach the summit by this method, and then have the privilege of descending by rail on the other side.
[Illustration: MOUNT WASHINGTON CARRIAGE ROAD.]
TUCKERMAN’S RAVINE, an immense seam in the side of Mount Washington, may be explored from the summit, or by following up the stream which takes its rise in this gorge. The chasm is filled to a great depth by the snows of winter, which, in the process of melting, form beautiful arches, sometimes visible till late in the summer.