THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



the Aetou, which runs up towards the Ilia; the 

 snowy peaks shining like rubies in the setting sun, 

 while all below them was blue and purple, with 

 the shades of evening 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 splen- 

 did 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 Chan- 

 nel. It is a straight passage, not more than two 

 miles wide, but a hundred and twenty miles long, 

 bounded on each side by mountains rising in un- 

 broken sweep from the water's edge, and termi- 

 nating in sharp and jagged points three thousand 

 feet high. The mountain-sides for half their heigh t 

 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 

 cascades are pouring their foaming waters 

 through the woods into the Channel below. In 



* "Siberia," p. 574. 

 52 



