All aboard! Fizzle-squeak-ding-dong- and hearts both blind to its greatest beauties rumble-rumble, and away we go, out of the and highest enjoyments; or if they look at all, hurry-skurry, smoke, and suffocation of the dé- it is, through a gimlet-hole, at such objects only pôt into the open air and sunlight. Puffing as may be connected with their own narrow ocand rolling onward through the long, weari-cupations and interests. Thus, while our unsome vistas of brick and mortar streets, until at length, the dusty corporation limits passed, our noses scent the incense-laden breath of the country. The free, buxom, artless country, all buds and blossoms and blushes, like a May queen-her bashful charms enhanced by a thin veil of violet haze, whose transparency but stimulates the ardent glances of her accepted lover, the sun.

Reclining on spring-cushioned, cut velvet seats, realizing the luxury, if not the poetry, of motion, our excursionists revel in the perfumed atmosphere and tender-tinted landscapes, diluted a little and the garishness toned down by dense clouds of tobacco smoke, and express their æsthetic emotions in stenographic phraseology.

"Fine day." "Very."

"Nice weather."

"Hottish."

Puff; puff. "Cigar?"

"Thank you, no-prefer a pipe." Puff; puff.

"What baskets are those ?"

"Grub."

"And the bottles?"

"Ale and Bourbon."

"Ah! how invigorating and appetizing!" "What? pure country air and water? Try this ale-with a toast:

'A country duck,

But a city cook.'

'Here's another to the same purpose:

'A country lass

In a city dress.'"

But, like the light skirmishing which preludes the general engagement, this presently closed in more earnest conversation; for our company was composed of men of travel, elegant culture, and varied abilities-many-sided men, as the Germans call them, who are readily jostled into social congruity, whose characteristic angularities are easily adjusted, like hexagonal figures; whose differences and dogmatisms were domineered and harmonized by a mysterious sympathy, like that which unites the votaries of a common religion. Fellow-worshipers at the shrine of the beautiful, this sweet May day was dedicated to their divinity. The universal majesty, before whom all conceits, prejudices, and opinions bend the knee; in whose homage all ages, languages, and civilizations unite; at the gates of whose temple all the ascending paths of human progress must finally meet; in whose service all sincere and honorable workers, whether in politics, society, science, art, or religion, are brethren.

tiring Yankee has pretty thoroughly reconnoitered the agricultural, mineral, manufacturing, commercial, and gullible capacities of our broad inheritance, called (why mince matters?) "the Western Continent," its nobler resources and attractions are so commonly ignored that the tourist, with artistic and poetic eyes, in passing through regions which have been pastured, plowed, catacombed with mines, gridironed with railroads, and smoked by factory chimneys for years, stumbles continually upon delightful surprises, natural picture-galleries of exquisite beauty and surpassing grandeur, of which the world has never heard, and which are scarcely known, much less appreciated, by the busy muck-rakes in their immediate vicinity.

Thus, in sweeping across Central Pennsylvania, we saw a region teeming with intelligent industry and material wealth, covered with wellcultivated farms, and dotted with thriving villages and stately cities. We had heard of these things, boastfully reiterated, and were not disappointed. But we had in additionwhat we had never heard talked of-a succession of the most beautiful scenic pictures that ever regaled the eye of an artist or warmed the fancy of a poet. We do not remember to have seen any where a panorama superior to that exhibited by the broad Susquehanna, with its green islands, limpid waters, and blue mountain embankments. As we glided smoothly and rapidly along the well-conducted thoroughfare, it was enjoyable as an opium dream to watch how each vanishing picture was replaced by another equally charming ere one had time to regret its passage.

It was, indeed, quite equal to standing on a corner in Charles Street, on a pleasant afternoon, with a full stream of Baltimore beauties flowing along the sidewalks.

Having left York, Harrisburg, and Sunbury behind, evening overtook us as we approached Williamsport, one hundred and seventy-eight miles distant from our starting-point.

There is a limit to all emotions, even to our purest and most healthful enjoyments, and we experienced a certain sense of relief when Mother Night kindly drew her curtain over the pictures.

We had seen quite enough for one day, and having switched off in front of the Herdic House, we land and say good-by until to-morrow morning.

This elegant railroad hotel and summer resort is the nucleus of a handsomely improved suburb of Williamsport-a town of fifteen or twenty thousand inhabitants, living and thriv ing on saw-mills and the lumber trade.

In size and appointments the Herdic compares with our first-class city hotels, with the Most people go through the world with eyes | advantage, however, of being located in the

Rising from the valley by the inclined planes we cross a summit level which shows us a more open and cultivated country, with a wider horizon, and divers freshlooking villages, with an inordinate proportion of church steeples.

At length we find ourselves in the State of New York, and, during a brief stoppage, catch a glimpse of Elmira, a beautiful town with whole streets of handsome villas and ornate cottages embowered in trees and blooming shrubbery.

Anon we enter the Slashes, at the head of Seneca Lake, and after running for several miles through water up to the hubs of the car-wheels, emerge at Watkins.

This pretty village stands high and dry at the head of lake navigation, overlooking the submerged meadows through which we had traveled, and commanding a charming view

which encircle its head waters.

midst of an extensive and umbrageous park, | of the lake and the grand amphitheatre of hills where its guests may sit in the shade and indulge in rural conceits, uninterrupted by the harsh screaming of the locomotives; for here all movements of trains are arranged by silent signals-which may be noted, by-the-way, as an advance toward a higher civilization in railway management.

After a night's repose and a solid breakfast we took the road again, leaving the Susquehanna and running up the fertile and picturesque valley of the Lycoming.

The look-out in every direction was pleasant, and the air hazy with the perfume of flowers and blooming orchards. Seneca, like a blue mirror framed in gently sloping hills, is "beautiful exceedingly;" but we had by this time become familiarized with pretty things, and enjoyed it mildly. Dinner was served, and after that we sallied forth to see the village wonder -the Glen.

Our route led us directly up the main street of the town, with pretty cottages and ornamented grounds on either side. The surrounding country appeared so smooth-featured that we wondered, as we walked, where those savage scenes, vaguely described to us, could be

As we ascend, the hills grow wilder and more abrupt, the valley more limited, and the scenery, although still charming, loses much of its breadth and grandeur. On this portion of the route there are numerous summer resorts, which offer mineral waters, pure air, and trout-located. fishing to the wearied cit who would escape for About half a mile from our hotel we reached a season from the heat and business of the town. a bridge spanning a limpid stream. Looking At Hinnequa, the most ambitious of these to the right, a quarter of a mile distant, we perhotels, the attractions consist of a sulphur ceive this stream issues from a cavernous openspring and a bear-the water weakly mineral-ing at the base of a perpendicular cliff some ized, and the bear rather small and uninterest- three hundred feet in height above the road. As we approach nearer we see a steep rustic

ing.

stairway raised against the face of the rock, | jaws; for, looking outward, we may still catch crossing the fissure by a narrow bridge, and connecting with other steps which are hidden beneath the shadows of overhanging trees.

"This," said the poet, "is a suggestive gate- trembling. We recoil with horror from the way to a region of wonders."