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Page 158:-
[com]pelled to "try round" many times before they succeed.
If darkness comes on, there is nothing to be done but to
wait for daylight where they are. Another reason for having
a guide is that the mountains around are not recognisable by
their forms,- so great is the change caused by their being
looked at from above. By map and compass they may be made
out: but the summit is usually windy: and much time and
trouble are saved by the information needed being ready at
one's elbow.
The summit is bare of every thing that grows, except moss.
Not a blade of grass is to be seen: and it follows that the
herdsman and shepherd never have to come here after their
charge. Blocks and inclined planes of slate rock, cushioned
and draped with mosses, compose the peak. As for what is
seen from it,- the best service to the stranger is still to
copy portions of that "Letter to a friend" which Mr.
Wordsworth published many years ago, and which is the best
account we have of the greatest mountain excursion in
England. The weather was, however, unusual. The guide said,
when on the summit, "I do not know that in my whole life, I
was ever, at any season of the year, so high upon the
mountains on so calm a day." It was the seventh of
October.
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"On the summit of the Pike," says the letter, "which we
gained after much toil, though without difficulty, there was
not a breath of air to stir even the papers containing our
refreshment, as they lay spread out upon a rock. The
stillness seemed to be not of this world. We paused, and
kept silence to listen, and
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