90 ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 



often to stop to breathe, both dogs and men, so steep 

 and laborious was the accHvity. We were quite 

 delighted when the sun became once more visible over 

 the ridge as we attained the summit, where a lengthened 

 halt was made while the party partook of refreshment 

 with a keen relish. We were now upon a large and 

 level plain, which from its appearance and advantageous 

 situation for irrigation from the surrounding hills, 

 should afford in temperate seasons most excellent 

 pasture. It comprised an area of seven or eight 

 square miles, encompassed by hills, snow-clad from 

 summit to base, excepting only where abrupt over- 

 hanging ledges of rock formed an obstruction to the 

 deposit of drift, or where enormous blocks and gigantic 

 pinnacles of the same material, apparently red granite, 

 were numerous, frequently assuming extraordinarily 

 fantastic shapes, as in an instance pointed out by 

 Captain Moore, where a perpendicular piece pre- 

 sented an exact resemblance to an old man with a 

 pipe in his mouth. 



We had here a very excellent view of three 

 distinct chains of hills, all of similar configuration, 

 and evidently, as well as the adjacent eminences, 

 and indeed the whole of the mountains in this part 

 of the country, of volcanic formation, mostly in an 

 advancing stage, but in many, extinct craters might 



