RETROSPECT 331 



all else on memory's page. It was early one morning nearly 

 half a century ago when I saw them first from the Bhootan 

 dooars, their icy peaks gilt by the rising sun, towering high 

 above a mass of mist and cloud to a height of almost five and half 

 miles on a background of the purest blue of heaven. Never could 

 that glorious and incomparable scene of Nature's most gigantic 

 and beautiful creation fade from the mind of any one who ever 

 saw it. Nor that other which also impressed me greatly giant 

 Aconcagua as for a moment seen when crossing the Andes by 

 the pass of the same name from the Chilian to the Argentine 

 Republic. When near the crest of the pass at a height of 

 12,500 feet, the top of Aconcagua with an altitude just double 

 suddenly became visible beyond another mountain, a single 

 white and silvery peak rising to a seemingly impossible height 

 into the deep blue sky. After many, many stops to ease his 

 breathing in the rarefied air my mule had at last succeeded in 

 reaching the saddle of the pass just as the sun rose, and every- 

 thing shone and sparkled in its golden light ; we were among 

 the grandest and wildest scenery of mountain, snow, and ice, 

 and beyond all and above all rose Aconcagua brilliantly beautiful 

 in the purest atmosphere. 



And next comes " Fuji " Fuji, beautiful from wherever seen 

 and at whatever time, but most strikingly beautiful in the early 

 morning when the sun first touches the snow-covered top rising 

 high into the clear blue sky above a mass of white clouds sus- 

 pended like a sheet half-way up the mountain's side. Standing 

 alone on an extensive plain, Fuji, an almost perfect cone, 

 impresses greatly by its noble beauty; once seen, no one can 

 wonder for a moment why Fuji is held sacred, is indeed almost 

 worshipped by the Japanese, is the goal of annual pilgrimages, 

 or why its image appears on very nearly every article made in 

 the country ; nothing could adorn more because there is nothing 

 more beautiful. Mount Egmont in New Zealand is perhaps the 

 nearest approach to Fuji in shape and beauty. 8,260 feet high, 

 it also rises from a plain in solitary grandeur ; its cone is always 

 covered with snow the most perfect cone probably in the world. 



It is sincerely to be hoped that these marvellous works of 

 Nature may never be defiled by hideous railway and huge hotels 

 which have already destroyed so much beauty in the Alps, or 

 be approached by power-houses and frightful factory chimneys 



