DESCENDING THE SADDLE. 101 



covered by a smooth and slippery turf. The mist con- 

 cealed the valley from them ; but they distinguished the 

 double hill of The Gate, which, like all objects lying 

 almost perpendicularly beneath the eye, appeared ex- 

 tremely near. They relinquished their design of passing 

 the night between the two summits of the Saddle, and 

 having again found the path that they cut through the 

 thick wood, they soon arrived at the little wood already 

 mentioned. As there is scarcely any twilight in the 

 tropics, they passed suddenly from bright daylight to 

 darkness. The moon was on the horizon ; but her disk 

 was veiled from time to time by thick clouds, drifted by 

 a cold and rough wind. Eapid slopes, covered with 

 yellow and dry grass, now seen in shade, and now sud- 

 denly illumined, seemed like precipices, the depth of 

 which the eye sought in vain to measure. They pro- 

 ceeded onwards in single file, and endeavoured to sup- 

 port themselves by their hands^ lest they should roll 

 down. The guides, who carried their instruments, 

 abandoned them successively, to sleep on the mountain. 

 Among those who remained with them was a Congo 

 black, who evinced great address, bearing on his head a 

 large dipping-needle : he held it constantly steady, not- 

 withstanding the extreme declivity of the rocks. The 

 fog had dispersed by degrees in the bottom of the valley, 

 and the scattered lights they perceived below them caused 

 a double illusion. The steeps appeared more dangerous 

 than they really were ; and, during six hours of continual 

 descent, they seemed to be always equally near the farms 

 at the foot of the Saddle. They heard very distinctly 

 the voices of men and the notes of guitars. Sound is 

 generally so well propagated upwards, that in a balloon 



