This was to take him in haste to Korinthos, Ever sailed faster. And as they listened his nimble ten fingers Ω υνκίδωμι. When he had finished, he walked to the quarter, Banjo in hand, and went merrily over, Diving down, down, derry down, to the bottom, Thinking their man gone to Aides with Hermes, But an art-loving, benevolent dolphin, Where when he landed he first took his breakfast, Wroth was his majesty at the recital: Swearing by Stux he would punish the varlets; Captain Kratippos, he longed for that cargo, So scarce, a league had they sailed on their voyage, Cool as a cucumber then was the minstrel ; Thus to him saying:-"When comes here the Nothes, So when the vessel came home in a fortnight, Off went policeman 940, Who with 2,750, Caught the offenders. They were all tried, and-the spring being over In a most summary manner; the seamen Sent off to Sing-Sing-Kratippos, he hanged himsel With his suspenders. So the musician recovered his riches, And for a week, with his friend Periandros, One to get high on. As for the dolphin, it met with misfortuneAs it went back a great shark bit its tail off: That was the tail of the dolphin; this is the Tale of Arion, My first sight of the famous White Sulphur Springs was obtained on an October morning, when, hungry, dusty, unshaven, and just a little tired, I emerged from the wilderness, after an eight days' horseback ride from Huntington on the Ohio, into what seemed VOL. V.-19 THE START DOWN THE GREENBRIER. to me then the loveliest stretch of fairyland I had ever seen. The springs lie in a spacious, yet well bounded and protected valley, surrounded by fine hills and mountains, and planted with a great number of noble and finelygrown trees. I never saw maples so brilliant as those which form the avenues about the hotel; and, after all, our American autumn splendors depend very much upon the maple. The yellow of the hickory and poplar; the maroon of the oak, the russet of the chestnut, the fiery blaze of the sweetgum, and the indomitable green of the pine, all harmonize with the crimson of the maple; but they need its glory to set them off. GREENBRIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS. remember, too, a Virginia creeper, which had climbed into the branches of a tall hemlock, and had, as is its habit, shot its arms out to the extremities of those of the tree, where it glowed, as though it was the very burning bush of Moses, with so dazzling an effulgence that all similes fail to describe it. And I remember, too, that on that lovely and invigorating October day our small party had the whole vast hotel to ourselves. The. guests had all untimely departed; the great dining-hall, the most spacious I have ever seen, echoed to our footsteps; the halls and broad piazzas were all deserted; the very barber had "gone a shooting," for lack of beards to cut; and I saw once more that the fashionable American has chosen to leave the country in the very finest time of the year, when health and beauty most abound in it. There is a singular, and for a fashionable watering-place, an extraordinary look of comfort and careless ease about the White Sulphur Springs. Not only are the piazzas broad and endlessly long, the halls wide, and the grass green and covered with fine shade-trees; but the little white cottages, scattered over the broad surrounding space, very plain, highly unornamented, but with white, clean piazzas, and cozy, give the place an odd look of a village. The post-office, the telegraph, the railroad depot, connect you with the outer world, but do not rob the place of its charming air of seclusion and quiet; while the mountains and vales invite to out-door life. The hotel lords over the valley, and it seems as though when you engaged your room at the White Sulphur you secured at the same time, and for the same price, your undivided share of all out-doors. Hitherto there has been to the White Sulphur, or to its neighboring watering-places, -the "Blue Sulphur," "Rockbridge Alum," "Old Sweet," and others whose medi cinal waters and fine scenery have made them long famous with East which last has its source in North Carolina. About Lewisburgh, you pass through a region containing many large and well-kept, and evidently prosperous farms; there you may see fine cattle, and can imagine the grazing to be excellent the year through. Western Virginia, in general, does not bear the aspect of a slave State; it is not dilapidated; the people, in fact, had formerly but few slaves, and those mostly house servants, who, in many cases, are still attached to the old families. The fresh breezes of these high plains are refreshing and healthgiving; and make traveling a pleasure. In the Greenbrier country, there is much evidence of wealth and refinement, in large houses, well-kept fences, and good crops. They raise fine horses hereabout; and no doubt the large farmers have found, as they will continue to find, the neighborhood of the Sulphur Springs convenient, because it gives them access to good society during the sum mer. The cañon of the New River seems to have been intended by Nature as a passage through the mountains for a railroad. It looks at first like a most unpromising passage; but did it not exist it is doubtful if a railever, or at least for many years was completed to the White Sulphur, that to come, have been run across the two resort was reached only by a stage jour EASTERN PORTAL OF SECOND CREEK TUNNEL. Until the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad | road would ney. Until the railroad pushed westward beyond the White Sulphur, westward lay, for many, many miles, as fine a bit of wilderness as you might expect to find anywhere; a country remarkably rich in oak, hickory and other valuable timber, which was commercially valueless because it could get to no market; but which must soon become very valuable, I should say. Through this region, picturesque, and having at many points the air of an old and comfortable farming country, while at others it lies in its aboriginal wildness, you reach the spot where amid charming forest glades the Greenbrier, the Ronce Vert of the old French, joins the New River, OCK, GREENBRIER RIVER. Virginias, to connect the Atlantic Ocean Iwith the Ohio. This cañon is one of the most remarkable natural wonders of the Eastern States. It is, in fact-so geologists affirm-a deep crack in the earth, a hundred miles long, a mile wide at the summit, from eight hundred to fifteen hundred feet deep, and bearing at its bottom a noisy turbulent stream, dangerous as well as difficult to navigate, and to the first look, useless. To the railroad builders this earth-crack was invaluable. It opened them a passage through the mountains which they could never have made by art or force, and gave them easy grades where, but for its existence, they must either have diverted their road in an impracticable manner, or been forced to attempt grades which are not commercially practical. As the locomotive draws you through this great earth-crack, along a shelf blasted out of the perpendicular, rocky side of the cañon, and whirls you sharply around corners, and past rapids and roaring waters, you should remember that you are not traveling at the general level of the surrounding country, but often hundreds of feet below it. The cañon is as really a deep gorge or cut, as that more famous and deeper one of the Colorado river. You approach it and enter it on the train, in such a way that you can with difficulty realize, that up at the summit of the steep declivity, if you stood there, you would see before you a great broad spacious plain, stretching away on both sides, in which the cañon would appear what it is- a mere earthcrack. Above are wide fertile fields of corn and wheat; there are towns and villages; there the world wags; down here in the silent THE STAGE-COACH. |