CHAPTER XXIV. 

 ciRCASSiA — continued. — the ascent of mount 



EL-BRUZ. 



Forest scenery. — The first halt. — A glacier. — A beautiful pano- 

 rama. — Sunrise. — A lammergeier slain. — Glacier travelling. — 

 Eternal snow. — Avalanches. — The lower summit attained. — 

 Our exultation. — A description of the higher summit. — The 

 impossibility of reaching it. — Grand scenery. — Intense glare. 

 — The descent commenced, — A sudden death. — Kuchuk's last 

 resting-place.— Fatiguing fag.— The bivouac in the pine-forest. 

 — An ibex killed. — Return. — Finale. 



The forest glowed with the most vivid autumn tints ; 

 the foliage of tlie different trees exhibiting every 

 shade, from the brightest ora,nge to the deepest red ; 

 and contrasted strangely with the peculiarly rich 

 colouring of masses of rocks here and there inter- 

 mingled, forming a picture, of Nature's painting, 

 which surpassed all the efforts of an artist to depict. 

 Ferns nearly six feet in height, and of a species I 

 had not previously seen, grew in the greatest pro- 

 fusion, whilst indigenous myrtle, box, laurel, rhodo- 

 dendron, and gigantic heath-bushes, grew in the 

 greatest profusion on every side. The ground was 



