282 SHORT STALKS 



another on either side of it, are honeycombed with 

 holes and caverns, and show how the water has grad- 

 ually melted out a way for itself through the soluble 

 limestone. 



A rough pass crosses the mountain at a great height 

 above this ravine, and near the highest point of the path 

 we pitched our first camp. Our pack train, which com- 

 prised a varied assortment of horses, camels, and donkeys, 

 had dawdled by the way. This was the more trying 

 to our patience as a thunderstorm was gathering and 

 growling behind us. Just as we reached the camp it 

 burst upon us, and in a few moments the ground was 

 white with large hailstones. Hastily pulling one of our 

 little tents from the back of the animal which carried it, 

 we held it up — there was no time to pitch it — and as 

 many as could gained a partial shelter by crouching inside ; 

 but such of our packages as were not waterproof were 

 presently reduced to draggled rags, and our bread to 

 sodden pulp. This dusting was not the pleasantest form 

 of greeting, but it was soon over, and tlie bushes around 

 were presently arrayed in a strange assortment of garments, 

 British and Oriental, steamino- in the settino- sun. We 

 had no reason to grumble, for thenceforth for twenty-eight 

 days we enjoyed a heavenly climate, once only similarly 

 broken. Frosts at sunrise, fresh sparkling mornings, then 

 four hours of blazino- heat for salamanders wdio liked it, 

 or, for those who did not, a soft bed of pine-needles in the 

 cool shade among the fir-tree columns, and the sweet 

 resinous smell which the sun distils from them. Then 

 again, the cool shade of the mountain, for the sun dipped 

 early behind the lofty ridges, while, for two hours more, 



