264 EAST NEPAL. Chap. XI. 



appeared to jut abruptly and quite horizontally from the 

 black cliffs of the valley. 



Looking north, the conical head of Junnoo was just 

 scattering the mists from its snowy shoulders, and standing 

 forth to view, the most magnificent spectacle I ever beheld. 

 It was quite close to me, bearing north-east by east, and 

 subtending an angle of 12° 23, and is much the steepest 

 and most conical of all the peaks of these regions. Prom 

 whichever side it is viewed, it rises 9000 feet above the 

 general mountain mass of 16,000 feet elevation, towering 

 like a blunt cone, with a short saddle on one side, that dips 

 in a steep cliff : it appeared as if uniformly snowed, from 

 its rocks above 20,000 feet (like those of Kinchinjunga) 

 being of white granite, and not contrasting with the snow. 

 Whether the top is stratified or not, I cannot tell, but 

 waving parallel lines are very conspicuous near it, as shown 

 in the accompanying view.* 



Looking south as evening drew on, another wonderful 

 spectacle presented itself, similar to that which I described 

 at Sakkiazung, but displayed here on an inconceivably 

 grander scale, with all the effects exaggerated. I saw a sea 

 of mist floating 3000 feet beneath me, just below the upper 

 level of the black pines ; the magnificent spurs of the snowy 

 range which I had crossed rising out of it in rugged gran- 

 deur as promontories and peninsulas, between which the 

 misty ocean seemed to finger up like the fiords of Norway, 



* The appearance of Mont Cervin, from the Rlffelberg, much reminded me of 

 that of Junnoo, from the Chounjerma pass, the former bearing the same relation 

 to Monte Rosa that the latter does to Kinchinjunga. Junnoo, though incompa- 

 rably the more stupendous mass, not only rising 10,000 feet higher above the sea, 

 but towering 4000 feet higher above the ridge on which it is supported, is not 

 nearly so remarkable in outline, so sharp, or so peaked as is Mount Cervin : it is a 

 very much grander, but far less picturesque object. The whiteness of the sides 

 of Junnoo adds also greatly to its apparent altitude ; while the strong relief in 

 which the black cliffs of Mont Cervin protrude through its snowy mantle greatly 

 diminish both its apparent height and distance. 



