62 THE STEEP ASCENT. 



parallels, as they are termed in fortifications, are 

 the exact description of the route we took up the 

 almost perpendicular cliffs ; and our faces were 

 alternately turned nearly due north and south, as 

 we succeeded in accomplishing some ten or twelve 

 yards in the traverse, at every turn we made, 

 peeping over into a deep abyss that yawned before 

 us, and prevented our ride from being extended 

 longer in that direction. Often does the merciful 

 man here dismount from his tired mule, and 

 sitting upon some detached portion of rock, con- 

 gratulate himself, as he gazes downward, on 

 having effected so much of his painful task; and 

 as he looks upward receives some encouragement 

 to proceed, when he sees the reward of persever- 

 ance, in the distant image of some preceding 

 traveller gradually rising in relief against the sky, 

 then suddenly disappearing over the lofty ridge 

 where terminates his labour. 



It took us one hour to surmount this awful 

 steep, which, had it been some thousand feet 

 higher, might not, perhaps, have been unjustly 

 compared with similar passes among the Alps; but 

 even then the comparison would hold no longer 

 than the ascent, for, arrived upon the summit, the 

 stranger finds no descent but an extensive table land 

 spread before him, and he cannot divest himself of an 

 idea, that he has reached some new continent. A 

 Scotch climate, and Scotch vegetation, wheat, 

 barley, and linseed, and yet still in inter-tropical 



