text:  Whether it was the subdued half-light of the luxuriant wilderness through which we were passing the solemn stillness only broken by the rustling of the dead leaves under our feet or the colossal dimensions of the mighty trees that rose like so many giants around us that wrought upon the imagination I cannot say; but it is certain that my companions who were mostly on the northern states and had never before been beyond Albany or the Saratoga springs became at once silent and almost sad