LETTER X, 



Third Ascent of tl)e Peak. 



Os the morning of the 9th, at eight o'clock, I set off 

 for the third time, to ascend the Peak, with a resolution 

 not to return, if possible, until I had perfected my purposed 

 objects. I pursued my route as usual, up the mountain of 

 Tygayga, and at ten o'clock, entered a dense body of 

 clouds, " dark as night," through which, I wandered for 

 two hours without knowing whether the next moment I 

 should be thrown headlong down the neighboring preci- 

 pice, or should find some more favorable issue, till all of a 

 sudden, the sun burst upon me, and I found myself just 

 entering Las Canadas. Soon after I came to the small 

 llano at the foot of the mountain, where I stopped and 

 refreshed myself, and made some observations on tempera- 

 ture, and a rude trigonometrical measurement of the Peak, 

 according to which, its elevation above this plain is 54(37 

 feet. 



From this small plain, I passed through a narrow defile 

 hollowed very anciently by the torrents, and about five 

 o'clock, I passed into the shadow of the Peak. The atmos- 

 phere was remarkably serene during the afternoon, and the 

 sun shone with its utmost brilliancy, the light of which, 

 created a painful sensation in my eyes. Shortly after 

 entering the shadow of the mountain, I observed a phe- 

 nomenon which, in former times, would have struck the 

 beholder with terror, and would have been regarded as 

 the direct agency of supernatural power ; but fortunately for 

 myself, science had reduced it to the level of other natural 

 phenomena, and I watched it with intense interest and 

 admiration. In casting my eye towards the eastern hori- 

 zon, I observed, suspended in the air, nearly on a level 



