Carleton Watkins Aurora Borealis
There were also plenty more typical boyish adventures that took the form of explorations of the nearby topography. Carleton recounted to Willard Huntington how he and his best friend, Gaius Fish, about the age of ten hiked to a place they called "The Rocks," a site located on the hillside northwest of Main Street.[50] The Rocks consisted of a bold outcroppings of slate, a stone soft enough for them and later visitors to carve their names or initials. The location was of sufficient distinction to be recorded in a picture post card around 1900 [Fig. 9a]. Watkins and his pals also hiked to Table Rock, from where could be had a picturesque view along the Susquehanna River Valley that revealed a topographical layering of intersecting and overlapping landscape elements that Carleton never forgot [Fig. 9b].[51]
The first decade of Carleton's life was nothing short of idyllic, but by the early 1840s his adolescent male hormones had begun to work their influence on his behavior. In Chapter Three we will learn what it was like to be a teenage boy in rural New York State.
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End Chapter Two: Aurora Borealis