Memoirs of William Miller - Sylvester Bliss

and sunk into the vapory bed, very much in the
form, but not with the force, of the water spouted
by a whale in the ocean. Again, the rising smoke
from the farm-house, the coal-pit, and from masses
of burning wood, when it reached an atmospheric
line the temperature or density of which refused it
an upward passage, slowly formed itself into an
upper cloudy stratum, which connected the higher
hill-tops as by an extended magic bridge. And
sometimes the storm clouds swept along these
mountain sides in their wildest and most imposing
grandeur, the sure precursors of a sudden squall or
tempest; and perhaps the spell-bound observer
would not have time to reach the warm but rude
cabin-door before the descending rain or snow
would shut out every object but the ground beneath
his feet.
Bears, wolves, and other dangerous wild
animals, which had formerly abounded through the
whole region, at this time usually kept among the
unfrequented recesses of the mountains. But
occasionally, during the severity of winter, when
the wolves were pressed by hunger, their howlings
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