A vast and beautiful panorama spread in a semi-circle before him.

The green of summer, the green that had been stained so fearfully at Bull Run, was gone.

The grass was now brown from the great heats and the promise of autumn soon to come, but--from the height at least--it was a soft and mellow brown, and the dust was gone.
The hills rolled far away southward, and under the horizon's rim.

Narrow ribbons of silver here and there were the numerous brooks and creeks that cut the country.

Groves, still heavy and dark with foliage, hung on the hills, or filled some valley, like green in a bowl.