422 A GREAT MOUNTAIN PANORAMA. 



are all to be seen, standing out against an azure 

 sky on clear mornings just at dawn, with that 

 infinite coldness and distinctness of outline, peculiar to 

 objects modelled in polished steel: whilst the splendid 

 effects of sunrise enhance to the utmost the grandeur 

 and beauty of the scene; its early rays tinting the 

 masses of snow with glowing hues of pink and carmine. 

 Thus every circumstance combines to form a prospect 

 whose glories can never be effaced from the mind, 

 either by time or distance or the strain and turmoil of 

 a busy life. 



The torrents, whose dull and ceaseless roar is often 

 the only sound which breaks the silence amid the higher 

 altitudes of great mountain ranges, form natural features 

 in the landscape rarely or never found wanting in such 

 localities. If a great mountain upreared its lofty crest 

 alone in its glory in the midst of the dryest desert 

 upon earth, it may be accepted as a matter of practical 

 certainly that vapour would still be condensed upon 

 its summit which would produce such torrents as are 

 found to seam the sides of all high places. A rainless 

 district may be ever so extensive, and yet the vapour- 

 laden winds are still for ever bearing aloft across the 

 arid waste those mighty water floods, which in due 

 season are destined to descend upon earth and become 

 the prolific sources of great rivers. There is nc occasion 

 to go elsewhere to seek for illustrations of this fact ; for 

 from Darjeeling, and all along the great northern plains 

 of India, whose boundary is formed by the Himalayan 

 range, we are everywhere surrounded by a vast region 

 where this phenomenon may be seen in continual 

 operation. 



The plains themselves may be, and unfortunately 



