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at last see Nanga Parbat ; it was a grand view upon 

 a grand day. Beneath our feet the glacier swept 

 proudly from us in beautiful and satisfying curves, 

 turning corner after corner, then draping itself in its 

 dark moraine and vanishing in the distance. Blue, 

 fringed icicles hung in fantastic forms from the ice- 

 bound rocks around us ; the black ribs of the 

 mountain piercing the snow were singularly decorative. 



" Mountain-climbing grows strangely upon one. You 

 may hardly care for it at first ; but if the fascination 

 ever comes, it will last with your life. The scenery 

 responds to your every mood. It is, to begin with, 

 the acme of repose, and repose is one of the greatest 

 latent forces in the world ; it is also the expression of 

 form and line in their most soul-satisfying sense ; and 

 it is, in Asia at any rate, far removed beyond the 

 reach of man to spoil. 



" The solemn heights embody the strong and the 

 abiding those * everlasting hills * ; the weird crags 

 are peopled by the ghosts of fancy ; the quiet wastes 

 of snow speak with unearthly voices. Here, at last, 

 the still, sad music of humanity can never weary, nor 

 the sordid stream of life stain. 



" Five little black dots in the midst of leagues and 

 leagues of snow and ice, we continued our climb, till 

 we were at the top of a ridge. To reach our peak we 

 had to make a sharp descent, then bear away to the 

 right over a level plateau, and finally ascend the west 

 side of our peak by an arete. 



" Our shortest way lay down a snow couloir that is, 



