Beyond this cultured knoll there seemed to be a deep pitch of
the land clothed with a hanging wood of heavy timber; and, above this
again, the soil surged upward into a huge and round-topped hill, with
several golden stubbles, shining out from the frame-work of primeval
forest, which, dark with many a mighty pine, covered the mountain to the
top, except where at its western edge it showed a huge and rifted
precipice of rock.
To the right, looking down the stream, the hills closed in quite to the
water's brink on the far side, rough and uncultivated, with many a blue
and misty peak discovered through the gaps in their bold, broken
outline, and a broad, lake-like sheet, as calm and brightly pictured as
a mirror, reflecting their inverted beauties so wondrously distinct and
vivid, that the amazed eye might not recognize the parting between
reality and shadow. An old gray mill, deeply embosomed in a clump of
weeping willows, still verdant, though the woods were sere and waxing
leafless, explained the nature of that tranquil pool, while, beyond
that, the hills swept down from the rear of the building, which
contained the parlor whence the two sportsmen gazed, and seemed entirely
to bar the valley, so suddenly, and in so short a curve, did it wind
round their western shoulder.
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