282 NATURE'S AWFUL WORKS. 



were we all to at last reach the top, where we sat down for 

 a short time to rest our weary limbs and to admire the grand 

 landscape before us ; for the snowstorm had passed over, and 

 the blue mountains of Spiti were gradually becoming dis- 

 closed to view through the broken masses of cloud and mist 

 that came rolling up from below. 



But our day's work was not to end here, for the descent 

 on the Spiti side of the pass was so steep and rough, that 

 even after we got clear of the snow the track was almost 

 worse than if covered with it. As the Major remarked, 

 "it was macadamised with a vengeance." Such a howling 

 wilderness of sharp pinnacles of rock, and bare, rugged, per- 

 pendicular cliffs, piled tier upon tier to an appalling height, 

 as flanked the stupendous canon down which our route lay, 

 I never beheld. 1 Some of the lofty fantastic-shaped summits 

 bore a striking resemblance to ruins of gigantic towers and 

 turrets. As the last rays of the sun, sinking behind the 

 mountain-tops, shed a parting gleam of golden radiance on 

 these aerial castles, rock-spires, and snow-crowned peaks, 

 leaving the profound depths of the abyss beneath wrapped 

 in gloomy shade, the effect was truly magnificent ; scenery 

 altogether so sublimely wild, so awe-inspiring, and on so 

 vast a scale as to be quite beyond description, and almost 

 beyond conception. Dame Nature must indeed have been 

 in a terrible mood when she fashioned such awful w.orks. 



When darkness compelled us to call a halt, we were still 

 several miles short of the usual camping-place ; and as there 

 was not a blade of grass in the vicinity, the poor yaks had 

 to fast another night. Fortunately we found sufficient fuel 

 for cooking purposes. 



A short but very stiff walk on the following morning up 



1 The Grand Caiion of the Yellowstone, in Wyoming, with its fantastic fea- 

 tures and profound depth, is the nearest approach to it in appearance I know, 

 though the American canon falls far short of it in magnitude and savage mag- 

 nificence of surroundings. And doubtless there are many other such gorges 

 in the higher Himalayas that quite equal, if they do not surpass, this one 

 in savage grandeur. 



