MOUNTAIN ROADS. 5Q 



arches leading in every direction. As the road 

 wound through these, the effect was most singular 

 and most beautiful. Gradually as we proceeded, 

 however, the path became narrower and more preci- 

 pitous till it often resembled a mere ditch, just wide 

 enough for the horses to tread in, and though the 

 forest was often so dense that we could hardly see a 

 few yards on either hand, we could sometimes per- 

 ceive we were tracing the summit of a very narrow 

 ridge, the ground pitching rapidly down on both 

 sides into ravines, of which the depth was quite un- 

 distinguishable from the density of the wood. What 

 seemed to me most singular in such a lofty, broken, 

 and precipitous country was that we could not see a 

 bit of stone. In one of the lower ravines, indeed, 

 where we crossed a considerable brook, there were 

 large blocks of basaltic rock, apparently washed 

 down by floods ; but on these narrow ridges, of which 

 the edges were so steep that we were often obliged 

 to dismount to climb up them on foot, not a par- 

 ticle of hard rock was to be seen. All was dark 

 brown soil, or loam passing into clay. It was of the 

 richest appearance, and many feet in thickness, as 

 might be seen occasionally where the rains had worn 

 a gully in the road. Here and there we passed one 

 or two men repairing the road, having, seemingly, 

 just begun to do so on our account. All they could 

 do, however, was merely to shovel some loose earth 

 or clay into the deep holes, which seemed to have 

 been worn or dug into the soil by horses' hoofs, as 



