Burn side. 87 



Another steep ascent lies before us, and the rugged side 

 has to be cautiously climbed. When we reach the top we 

 find ourselves on a level surface of black schist, leading in 

 front of us to the edge of a steep precipice. Out to the 

 edge, leaping over yawning crevices on the way, my com- 

 panions go and gaze into the depths below, whilst I take my 

 view from a distance, and with infinitely less risk. We 

 climb rapidly among large rocky crags towards the summit, 

 resting occasionally as a mass of mist envelopes us in its 

 descent, and going on again as soon as it has passed. The 

 rock faces get more and more broken as we ascend, the jut- 

 ting crags more numerous, the overhanging rocks more 

 threatening, the precipices more dangerous, the crevices 

 more yawning. Here, among these rocky masses near the 

 summit of the mountain, we can picture, in times scarcely 

 yet gone by, the eagle clasping 



" The crag with hooked hands, 

 Close to the sun, in lonely lands, 

 Ring'd with the azure world he stands. 

 The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls, 

 He watches from his mountain walls, 

 .And like a thunderbolt he falls." 



The soft rosy haze which toned down the ruggedness of the 

 mountain in the early morning has entirely disappeared; 

 the picture now unfolded before our eyes is one of wild and 

 savage grandeur; stern, unyielding and tumultuous rocks 

 and precipices, with jagged sides and rugged crests, rise one 

 above the other, the wildness of the scene increasing as the 

 summit is approached. 



But the rocky precipices are climbed or skirted, and we 

 reach a narrow mossy slope that leads upwards to another 

 ridge. A short sharp scramble upon the very crest of this 



