MOUNTAINS I HAVE SEEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

MOUNTAINS I HAVE SEEN.

By COLEEN. f think that thero is no formation on tho earth so consistently lovely as tho hills and mountains. In England their charm lies in their quiet simplicity. 'J'hc Devon Hills, softly green, and dotted here and there with small cottages that are the homes of tho shepherds. Heather, white and purple, golden furze and broom, grow in dainty profusion ab the foot of tiio hills. Tho highlands of Scotland and the mountains of North Wales are similar to our own in their wild, rugged beauty. In Wales there is a dear little village called Lllangollen, set away up on the side of a mountain range. The natives breed goafs, and to see them scramble up the mountainside, fearlessly jumping chasms, sure-foot-edly scaling rocks, is a sight worth seeing. I don't kn°w who climbs the best —the goats or their tenders. Captctown's Table Mountain is lovely beyond description. Jlisirig sheer from the lower land, it is clearly etched against the tropical skies. Little, whitish-blue clouds, fragile as spider-webs, cluster softly around its head. 'I his is the celebrated " table and cloth." I was told an interesting legend about Table Mountain. Years, nunv years ago, beforo Vaseo de Gama rounded tho Cape, a chieftain s daughter angered her tribe by refusing to marry the warrior chosen for her. Fearing her tribe's wrath, she fled to the coast, and, seeing Table Mountain, ran pantingly to tho top. Then, hearing tho shouts of her pursuers in the distance, (lie harassed girl called upon the gods to save her. They did, by lowering the clouds to bido her, and ever since the " cloth" has remained as a warning to the tribe. It is a quaint story, rather like Maui and his fiflli. Two ranges of mountains I have seen only in the distance are the hills behind Montevideo and those behind Hobart. Tho first, in South America, were coloured in shades of blue and purple, deepening at the foot to a dark green. Tho sky behind tjiem was blue, so blue that it dazzled one. :iud not' u cloud could bo seen. At Hobart the hills were a delicate bluish-grey, and the sun was getting behind them as I drew nearer. The sky was a brilliant orange, and the scene was liko a drawing from the Orient in its barbaric splendour. My two favourite mounts in our own lovely isles are Ruapehu .and Egmont. Staunch old Ruapehu stands out like a monument to courage. Cloaked forever and a day" in tho snows of countless years, it remains the same through storm and shin?. I like to think of it lis a sentinel of tho ages, bequeathed to each generation by timo, to remind them that courage is always ours. I havo seen it .on a fine day. gleaming white and silver in tin sunshine, its glaciers shining like strips of blue sky. And again," when tho sun is setting, and its whito mantle is changed into a likeness of summer roses, colonrod in shades of rose and pink, it seems as though the sunset clouds have gathered nt its hack to speed tho dying day. Often when I watch Mount Egmont, clearly etched against the distant horizon, and sparkling in the brilliant sunshine, I wish it could speak and tell us tho stories, the secrets, tho halt-forgotten dreams of a long-forgotten dead. —(Pleas# send nddresO