A GRAND PANORAMA. 235 



and ice ran u^) into a sharp point, and created one of the 

 most striking mountain-forms I ever saw. The rocks on 

 the left-hand or north-west rib, seen though a telescope, 

 were of the most formidable character, some of them 

 appearing actually to overhang ; and the other sides of 

 the mountain were so sheeted with ice as to be, if not 

 absolutely inaccessible (a word which had, perhaps, best 

 be banished nowadays from a mountaineer's dictionary), 

 practically so for our party. Separated by a deep gap 

 from its slenderer neighbour rose a double-headed mass, 

 supported by huge and fantastically-broken buttresses of 

 rock. Huge seracs hung in a curtain under its crest, and 

 raked the lower snow-slopes. These two summits are pro- 

 bably nearer 16,000 than 15,000 feet; to the west of them 

 the cham sinks considerably, and a succession of snowy 

 eminences, none of them sufficiently marked to arrest the 

 attention, are connected by icy ridges, steep and high 

 enough to present a serious obstacle to anyone wishing 

 to make a pass, and discover what lies beyond and behind 

 them. Masses of rock abutting on the main ridge divided 

 the basins of sundry small glaciers which filled the hollows 

 at its foot. On the left, the isolated snowy tower of 

 Tau Burdisula formed a striking termination to the 

 group. 



We were completely puzzled to know what use to 

 make of the knowledge we had now gained of the neigh- 

 bouring mountains. The first point settled was, that 

 the two big peaks must be let alone, and we inclined 

 to a suggestion made by Moore, that we should cross 

 over to the northern side, and back, by two glacier-passes. 

 The Five Verst Map showed, on the west side of Tau 

 Burdisula, a pass called Per Gurdzieveesk, leading from 

 Chiora to the valley of the Uruch. We thought we 

 detected a weak point in the niountain-wall before men- 



