168 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



all fours, in rather less than two hours we emerged 

 from out of the birch forest, and traversing a belt 

 of stunted juniper bushes half covered with snow, 

 reached the rocky crest of the hill, breathless and 

 faint from continued exertion. Throwing ourselves 

 down on a smooth slab of rock, to rest and regain 

 our steadiness, previous to approaching the burrul, 

 our attention was drawn to the magnificence of the 

 panorama then before us, and for a time we gazed 

 spell-bound. Before us lay the glacier world, with 

 its interminable barriers of eternal snow, peak upon 

 peak, rising one behind another in endless suc- 

 cession. From the valley, on account of the 

 steepness and close proximity of its boundaries, 

 little was to be seen except a narrow strip of sky 

 above ; but from the elevation we had now attained, 

 which the Doctor made out to be nearly 15,000 

 feet above the level of the sea, and about 4,00U 

 above the bed of the river, the scene was grand 

 beyond conception. Rising above an unbroken 

 girdle of perpetual snow, seventeen peaks seemed 

 to pierce the heavens, the lowest of which exceeded 

 20,000 feet in elevation. Most conspicuous, from 



