THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



at the rising sun from the same peaks, gazing 

 across the plains of Asia : we are now called to 

 look over Europe. 



"I now turned towards the west, and walked to 

 a high crag overlooking the valley ; here I seated 

 myself to watch the great and fiery orb descend 

 below the horizon; and a glorious sight it was I 

 Pavda, with its snowy cap, was lighted up, and 

 sparkled like a ruby; the other mountains were 

 tinged with red, while in the deep valleys all was 

 gloom and mist. For a few minutes the whole 

 atmosphere appeared filled with powdered car- 

 mine, giving a deep crimson tint to everything 

 around. So splendid was this effect, and so firm 

 a hold had it taken of my imagination, that I 

 became insensible to the hundreds of mosquitoes 

 that were feasting on my blood. Excepting their 

 painfully disagreeable hum, no sound, not even the 

 chirping of a bird, was to be heard : it was truly 

 solitude. 



"Soon after the sun went down, a white vapour 

 began to rise in the valleys to a considerable 

 height, giving to the scene an appearance of in- 

 numerable lakes studded with islands, as all the 

 mountain-tops looked dark and black. I was so 

 riveted to the spot by the scene before me, that ] 

 remained watching the changes until nearly eleven 

 o'clock, when that peculiar twilight seen in these 

 regions stole gently over mountain and forest. 

 The effect I cannot well describe — it appeared to 

 partake largely of the spiritual.''* 



The other sketch is by the same accomplished 

 traveller, drawn in a mountain region still more 

 majestically grand than the Oural, — the great 

 Altaian chain of Central Asia. 



"In the afternoon I rode to the westward ten or 

 * Atkinson's " Siberia," p. 57. 

 30 



