With what success he performed his duties remains to be enumerated. The next in importance was a minister, and I do not doubt but that his presence suppressed the use of any strong language which might otherwise have escaped some of our lips. The next was a gentleman who had travelled over a great part of the world and had climbed the rugged Alleghanies in Virginia, and then came the writer of this account.
Every member of our party had an artistic eye, and all were warm in their expressions of admiration at some of the lovely scenes which presented them selves to our enchanted gaze. Here we could revel in the sight of nature in all her primeval beauty : huge rocks and massive trees, which had been overthrown by the force of the wind, but whose prostrate forms were now covered with various kinds of moss and lichen, formed our roadway, and we had at intervals to cut the scrub to enable us to pass along.
For the first two hours we quietly followed our guide, who kept confidently moving on, and although our progress was rather slow we fully expected soon to reach the desired goal; but alas, after about two weary hours we looked through a break in the scrub and beheld the Mount which at starting had been in a south-easterly direction, frowning down upon us almost from the west. We looked rather amazed, but nothing daunted we started along at the trignonometrical angle of about 120 degrees from our former course, and in about one and a half hours more we had the pleasure of emerging from the scrub and coming on a fields of rocks. Here we found innumerable specimens of indigenous plants and ferns; but unfortunately our botanical knowledge was so limited, that we could not classify them.
We at length decided that we were uncommonly thirsty and after having almost given up in despair our search for water we began contemplating how many lives had been lost on the Sahara and how long a man could live without water, and indulging in a few more enervatory reflections. These meditations were, however, brought to an abrupt termination by one of our party giving a lusty cheer and announcing in a tone of voice which quite eclipsed Hentor's feebled tone that he had discovered water. We all rushed frantically to the indicated spot, and there sure enough in a deep cleft of a rock was the sparkling fluid. We each had a drink in the fashion approved of by Gideon and having quenched our thirst we decided to look round again as we thought we saw indications of a stream, and soon we found pools innumerable. We were much surprised to find such an abundance of water at that height, and at such a time of the year, as there had been no rain since Christmas, and we were about 3850 feet above the sea level.
Having refreshed the inner man we pushed on and reached the flagstaff, which denotes the highest part of the mountain at about half-past eleven, having occupied nearly five hours in the ascent. Then how thoroughly we could appreciate Pope, when he speaks of
"The growing labours of the lengthend way"
or Rogers, when he says the mountain (not Row Tor) seems like
"A stair let down from Heaven itself transporting me."
I am sure that after one has once experienced the exhilerating effects of a good climb up a mountain, they will not mind the trouble, be it ever so much, of experiencing the same pleasant emotions again.
ASCENT OF MOUNT ARTHUR (1882, June 3). The Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. : 1881 - 1895), p. 597. Retrieved September 3, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201188968