MOUNTAIN PICTURES 215 



pld European scenes. And there in the Himalaya 

 is the grandest scenery in the world, and not a 

 painter from Europe ever goes there — except just 

 one, the great Russian Verestchagin, whose pictures, 

 alas ! are now; buried somewhere in Russia. The 

 Indian Services might do something, and they have 

 indeed produced one great painter of Himalayan 

 scenery, Colonel Tanner. But the Services are 

 limited, and it is to Europe that we must mainly 

 look. 



On the first expedition to Mount Everest it 

 may be only possible to send a photographer. But 

 this will be a pioneering expedition to open the way, 

 at least, for the painter. And then we may have 

 Mount Everest pictured in all her varied and ever- 

 varying moods, as I have, from a distance, seen her 

 for three most treasured months. Now serene and 

 majestic ; now in a tumult of fury. Now rooted 

 solid on earth; now hung high in the azure. Now 

 hard and material ; now ethereal as spirit. Now 

 stern and austere — cold, and white, and grey; 

 now warm and radiant and of every most delicate 

 hue. Now in one aspect, now in its precisely 

 opposite, but always sublime and compelling; 

 always pure and unspotted; and always pointing 

 us starward. 



These are the pictures — either by painter or by 

 poet — ^that we want. And they can only be painted 

 by one who has himself gone in among the moun- 

 tains, confronted them squarely, braced himself 

 against them, faced and overcome them — ^realised 

 their greatness, realised also that great as they are 

 he is greater still. 



