88 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



and along the steep banks, bearing in their course huge 

 tree trunks like matchwood, and fed by countless 

 mountain streams that in maddest fashion threaded as 

 with lines of silver the dark pine forests still frost- 

 bound above, liberated below by the powerful spring 

 sun and bringing with them in their wild descent all 

 boulders or blocks of wood that threatened to bar their 

 way. From the path vast rocks rose precipitously, 

 cutting the sky ten thousand feet above with their 

 jagged edges, outer barriers of the huge barricade 

 behind them, snowy monsters, the rivals of Haramuk 

 and Kolahoi, whose heads showed at intervals between 

 the nearer heights. Except in name the track was 

 often non-existent, hidden at times under the blocks 

 of huge moraines, swept away by the wild waters of the 

 river that forced one to clamber through the flowery 

 shrubs that formed the undergrowth of the dark forests 

 of pine, whose gloom was only broken by vivid patches 

 of young birches and walnuts just bursting into 

 leaf. The scene would have been rugged to the 

 point of desolation but for the saving grace of the 

 flowers. Tufts of violets and saxifrages patched 

 the ground with colour, and the dark glossy foliage 

 of the laurels was relieved by flowering viburnums, 

 graceful ferns, and some uncommon species of hazel. 

 The roses and jessamines had been left behind after 

 the second march, and all these had been cherished 

 by the snow in the long winter months. It was a lonely 

 path, the brightness of the early dawn had faded away, 

 and there was a threatening of rain in the air which 

 betokened fresh snow on the pass, a prospect to deter 

 all possible pedestrians. During the later hours of my 

 long march of twenty miles I only met one party of 



