CHAPTER XXXIX 



A FREEZING NIGHT 



DENSE, woolly clouds sail away beneath us, leaving a 

 pale sea of silver out of which peep forth glistening 

 mountain crests in many fantastical shapes : ramparts 

 and towers, battlements and ridges every form one 

 can imagine presented in the sharpest contrasts and 

 most wonderful colour effects. Nowhere, probably, 

 do light and shade produce greater marvels than 

 here, where the sky is so clear and so near. 



What a magic air-city a new world ! And yet 

 how lonely and lifeless ! Like a cold woman, 

 lovely to look at, the rocks stand, passive and 

 indifferent in their majestic beauty. No warmth of 

 love, no neighbourly interest, no ambitious struggle 

 nothing but unchanging coldness, stony indiffer- 

 ence, deathlike silence ! 



We have now reached the edge of Crass Nullah. 

 About three hundred feet from its summit we call a 

 halt, and prepare a stony camp beneath the shelter of 

 a large, projecting rock. Thus we intend to camp 

 every night until I get him ! 



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