178 DESOLATE SCENERY. 



Lake on the far horizon, and to another at the 

 extreme south, I rejoiced that, whatever the mo- 

 tive might have been, he had chosen that steep 

 and weary track. It was a sight altogether novel 

 to me ; I had seen nothing in the Old World at 

 all resembling it. There was not the stern beauty 

 of Alpine scenery, and still less the fair variety 

 of hill and dale, forest and glade, which makes the 

 charm of a European landscape. There was 

 nothing to catch or detain the lingering eye, 

 which wandered on, without a check, over endless 

 lines of round backed rocks, whose sides were 

 rent into indescribably eccentric forms. It was 

 like a stormy ocean suddenly petrified. Except 

 a few tawny and pale green lichens, there was 

 nothing to relieve the horror of the scene ; for 

 the fire had scathed it, and the grey and black 

 stems of the mountain pine, which lay prostrate 

 in mournful confusion, seemed like the blackened 

 corpses of departed vegetation. It was a picture 

 of "hideous ruin and combustion." 



Our encampment was broken up, and we were 

 on our way very early on the morning of the 7th 

 of September, but every one was too busily en- 

 gaged in picking his way to speak ; not a word 

 was audible until about eight o 'clock, when a 

 fine buck deer, betrayed by its branching antlers, 

 was espied feeding behind a point thirty paces 

 from us. It was brought down ; and the haunch, 



