At this rural retirement were assembled a charming circle of mountain vegetable beauties....  Some of these roving beauties stroll over the mossy, shelving, humid rocks, or from off the expansive wavy boughs of trees, bending over the floods, salute their delusive shade, playing on the surface; some plunge their perfumed heads and bathe their flexile limbs in the silver stream; whilst others by the mountain breezes are tossed about, their blooming tuffts bespangled with pearly and crystalline dew-drops collected from the falling mists, glistening in the rainbow arch.  Having collected some valuable specimens at this friendly retreat, I continued my lonesome pilgrimage.  My road for a considerable time led me winding and turning about the steep rocky hills:  the descent of some of which was very rough and troublesome, by means of fragments of rocks, slippery clay and talc:  but after this I entered a spacious forest, the land having gradually acquired a more level surface:  a pretty grassy vale appears on my right, through which my wandering path led me, close by the banks of a delightful creek, which sometimes falling over steps of rocks, glides gently with serpentine meanders through the meadows.

After crossing this delightful brook and mead, the land rises again with sublime magnificence, and I am led over hills and vales, groves and high forests, vocal with the melody of the feathered songsters; the snow-white cascades glittering on the sides of the distant hills.

It was now afternoon; I approached a charming vale, amidst sublimely high forests, awful shades!  Darkness gathers around; far distant thunder rolls over the trembling hills:  the black clouds with august majesty and power move slowly forwards, shading regions of towering hills, and threatening all the destruction of a thunder-storm:  all around is now still as death, not a whisper is heard, but a total inactivity and silence seem to pervade the earth; the birds afraid to utter a chirrup, in low tremulous voices take leave of each other, seeking covert and safety:  every insect is silenced, and nothing heard but the roaring of the approaching hurricane.  The mighty cloud now expands its sable wings, extending from north to south, and is driven irresistibly on by the tumultuous winds, spreading its livid wings around the gloomy concave, armed with terrors of thunder and fiery shafts of lightning.  Now the lofty forests bend low beneath its fury; their limbs and wavy boughs are tossed about and catch hold of each other; the mountains tremble and seem to reel about, and the ancient hills to be shaken to their foundations:  the furious storm sweeps along, smoking through the vale and over the resounding hills:  the face of the earth is obscured by the deluge descending from the firmament, and I am deafened by the din of the thunder.  The tempestuous scene damps my spirits, and my horse sinks under me at the tremendous peals, as I hasten on for the plain.