LIFE IX CENTRAL ASIA. 295 



the mountain - views appeared most striking. The 

 wild confusion of rock beneath spread away in the 

 lurid glare like some primeval world destitute of life. 

 The vast jungly valleys, falling westwards in the 

 distance, seemed like dark but lurid rivers pouring 

 down their molten floods into the glory of the sea 

 In the utter desolation, where the foot of man had 

 never trod before, the silence was unbroken by any 

 sound. Heaven's deepening blue, the only " thing 

 of beauty there," was serene and passionless, unvexed 

 by any cloud. Beyond our poor earth's rim, the 

 great rosy light of other worlds was fading in the 

 west. A dark shadow seemed to rise up from the 

 earth, and a flood of darkness swept round the basalt 

 cliff that raised its brow above the gloom into the 

 light of stars. So removed were we from all familiar 

 manifestations of earthly life, that we felt as if not 

 upon the earth at all, but alone and newly alighted 

 on some new-born star. 



VOL. IV. 



