Book Description

Excerpt from Vermont, the Land of Green Mountains Long, long ago, so long ago that nobody knows just when or where it was given, the name Green mountains was bestowed upon the mountain range that extends through the State of Vermont from its southern to its northern border. The most that is known concerning the origin of this name is that it was given by the French, the first Europeans to visit this region. If Samuel Champlain, the discoverer of these mountains, gave them a name, he did not record that fact in his journals, which were kept with much care. It is more probable that some French soldier sailing southward over Lake Champlain on a warlike expedition into the Mohawk country, or some pious Jesuit priest traveling by canoe toward the Indian encampments, in the hope of converting the aborigines to the Christian faith, gazed with admiration on the nearer hills and the more distant peaks, and gave to them the natural and appropriate name, the Green mountains. We use the English phrase for the mountains, but the French term is preserved in the name of the State, Vermont - Verd Mont - thanks to Dr. Thomas Young of Philadelphia, at whose suggestion the name was given. And they are the green mountains in very truth, with the verdure of meadow and pasture land on their lower slopes, and the verdure of deciduous trees and evergreen forests on their higher slopes and summits. This mountain barrier, taking toll of the moisture-laden clouds that )ass over its summits from the ocean, keeps this highland region well watered and its verdure fresh and beautiful. The Green mountains - how much this name suggests to the weary toiler in the noisy, grimy city! The very name comes to the hot and stifling atmosphere of a great metropolis with an alluring sound. It suggests the green that means the abundant bounty and varied charm of nature; the green of upland meadows, the green of the forests, stretching far away over the slopes of the everlasting hills; the green that denotes life and promotes life and health. It suggests beautiful drives through shaded ways, beside which mountain streams go laughing and singing down to the valleys, over moss-covered rocks and shining pebbles, here becoming a cascade wreathed with mist, there an angry torrent, then spreading out into a wide and placid basin between green meadows. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.