VAN RENAN'S PASS. 113 



from beneath, it is truly a fearful place now, and what 

 must it have been before roads had been blasted out ? 

 Some of the peaks, I am told, reach an altitude of 

 11,000 feet; the summit of the pass we are about to 

 go through is reported to be 6,500 feet above sea-level 

 500 feet higher than the most elevated portion of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific line of railroad connecting New 

 York with San Francisco. 



The sun is setting, and of course all the valley is in 

 shadow; but to look at these mountains, precipitous, 

 grim, rocky, and almost destitute of vegetation, it 

 brings at once to my mind some of the illustrations of 

 Dante's " Inferno," drawn by Gustave Pore. We see 

 visions in our sleep, faces we know not, and scenes we 

 have never been in. Could that great artist have been 

 transported here in mind before he drew those pictures ? 

 I never open this illustrated edition of that great 

 work but I feel a cold unearthly chill creep over me, 

 such a feeling as I experienced in childhood, when, by 

 the fitful light of the fire, I have listened to some 

 fearful ghost story. And now at maturity, as I gaze 

 at the scene before me, the same feeling, only softened 

 by experience and age, lays hold of me. If this wild 

 precipitous black range of mountains, with its irre- 

 gular jagged outline, were the barrier between earth 

 and hell, how mortals would dread the time of 

 passing them, for once beyond, hope for ever must 

 be closed ! 



Our wagon is to go up first, being supposed to be 

 the heaviest. Hendrick's and Pater's teams are to be 

 put to it thirty-six oxen in all and if we get to 

 the summit in ten hours we are to deem ourselves 

 fortunate. 



