The Mails, However, Would Have
Paid No Respect To Me In Vermont, And I Was Obliged To Walk Away
Crest-Fallen.
We went with the mails from Sherbrooke to a village called Magog,
at the outlet of the lake, and
From thence by a steamer up the
lake, to a solitary hotel called the Mountain House, which is built
at the foot of the mountain, on the shore, and which is surrounded
on every side by thick forest. There is no road within two miles
of the house. The lake therefore is the only highway, and that is
frozen up for four months in the year. When frozen, however, it is
still a road, for it is passable for sledges. I have seldom been
in a house that seemed so remote from the world, and so little
within reach of doctors, parsons, or butchers. Bakers in this
country are not required, as all persons make their own bread. But
in spite of its position the hotel is well kept, and on the whole
we were more comfortable there than at any other inn in Lower
Canada. The Mountain house is but five miles from the borders of
Vermont, in which State the head of the lake lies. The steamer
which brought us runs on to Newport, or rather from Newport to
Magog and back again. And Newport is in Vermont.
The one thing to be done at the Mountain House is the ascent of the
mountain called the Owl's head. The world there offers nothing
else of active enterprise to the traveler, unless fishing be
considered an active enterprise. I am not capable of fishing,
therefore we resolved on going up the Owl's Head. To dine in the
middle of the day is absolutely imperative at these hotels, and
thus we were driven to select either the morning or the afternoon.
Evening lights we declared were the best for all views, and
therefore we decided on the afternoon. It is but two miles; but
then, as we were told more than once by those who had spoken to us
on the subject, those two miles are not like other miles. "I doubt
if the lady can do it," one man said to me. I asked if ladies did
not sometimes go up. "Yes; young women do, at times," he said.
After that my wife resolved that she would see the top of the Owl's
Head, or die in the attempt, and so we started. They never think
of sending a guide with one in these places, whereas in Europe a
traveler is not allowed to go a step without one. When I asked for
one to show us the way up Mount Washington, I was told that there
were no idle boys about that place. The path was indicated to us,
and off we started with high hopes.
I have been up many mountains, and have climbed some that were
perhaps somewhat dangerous in their ascent. In climbing the Owl's
Head there is no danger.
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