into the amphitheatre, through a cleanly cut natural cleft in the granite embankment; this fissure might have been ten yards wide at its widest point, so far as the eye could trace it.  It seemed to lead up, up like a natural causeway, into the recesses of unexplored mountains and forests.  The other opening was directly at the southern end of the vale.  Here, generally, the slopes were nothing more than gentle inclinations, extending from east to west about one hundred and fifty yards.  In the middle of this extent was a depression, level with the ordinary floor of the valley.  As regards vegetation, as well as in respect to every thing else, the scene softened and sloped to the south.  To the north —­ on the craggy precipice —­ a few paces from the verge —­ up sprang the magnificent trunks of numerous hickories, black walnuts, and chestnuts, interspersed with occasional oak, and the strong lateral branches thrown out by the walnuts especially, spread far over the edge of the cliff.  Proceeding southwardly, the explorer saw, at first, the same class of trees, but less and less lofty and Salvatorish in character; then he saw the gentler elm, succeeded by the sassafras and locust —­ these again by the softer linden, red-bud, catalpa, and maple —­ these yet again by still more graceful and more modest varieties.  The whole face of the southern declivity was covered with wild shrubbery alone —­ an occasional silver willow or white poplar excepted.  In the bottom of the valley itself —­ (for it must be borne in mind that the vegetation hitherto mentioned grew only on the cliffs or hillsides) —­ were to be seen three insulated trees.  One was an elm of fine size and exquisite form:  it stood guard over the southern gate of the vale.  Another was a hickory, much larger than the elm, and altogether a much finer tree, although both were exceedingly beautiful:  it seemed to have taken charge of the northwestern entrance, springing from a group of rocks in the very jaws of the ravine, and throwing its graceful body, at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, far out into the sunshine of the amphitheatre.  About thirty yards east of this tree stood, however, the pride of the valley, and beyond all question the most magnificent tree I have ever seen, unless, perhaps, among the cypresses of the Itchiatuckanee.  It was a triple —­ stemmed tulip-tree —­ the Liriodendron Tulipiferum —­ one of the natural order of magnolias.  Its three trunks separated from the parent at about three feet from the soil, and diverging very slightly and gradually, were not more than four feet apart at the point where the largest stem shot out into foliage:  this was at an elevation of about eighty feet.  The whole height of the principal division was one hundred and twenty feet.  Nothing can surpass in beauty the form, or the glossy, vivid green of the leaves of the tulip-tree.  In the present instance they were fully eight inches wide; but their glory was altogether eclipsed by the gorgeous splendor of the profuse blossoms.  Conceive,