BEARDED EAGLE. 47 



slow them was blue and purple, with the shades of even- 

 ing creeping over the lower range. In the foreground 

 was my yourt [hut], with the Kirghis cooking the sheep 

 in a large cauldron, while the camels and horses were lying 

 and standing around. Tired as I was, I could not resist 

 sketching the scene, which will ever be impressed upon 

 my memory, as well as the splendid sunset over the 

 Steppe." * 



The describer, it must be remembered, is an artist in 

 search of the picturesque. His eye was mainly on the 

 scenery ; but surely the kingly eagle, seated in lone 

 majesty on that craggy throne of his, and surveying with 

 haughty eye his superb domain, was a very grand element 

 in the picture. 



Again ; let us look at Darwin and Captain Fitzroy 

 threading their perilous way from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific through the Beagle Channel. It is a straight 

 passage, not more than two miles wide, but a hundred 

 and twenty miles long, bounded on each side by moun- 

 tains rising in unbroken sweep from the water's edge, 

 and terminating in sharp and jagged points three thou- 

 sand feet high. The mountain-sides for half their height 

 are clothed with a dense forest, almost wholly composed 

 of a single kind of tree, the sombre-leafed southern 

 beech. The upper line of this forest is well defined, and 

 perfectly horizontal ; below, the drooping twigs actually 

 dip into the sea. Above the forest line the crags are 

 covered by a glittering mantle of perpetual snow, and 

 * Siberia, p. 574. 



