266 EAST NEPAL. Chap. XL 



amongst the wild crags to the north-east, whose bases we 

 skirted : it resembles the Capuchin on the shoulder of Mont 

 Blanc, as seen from the Jardin. Evening overtook us 

 while still on the snow near the last ascent. As the sun 

 declined, the snow at our feet reflected the most exquisitely 

 delicate peach-bloom hue ; and looking west from the top 

 of the pass, the scenery was gorgeous beyond descrip- 

 tion, for the sun was just plunging into a sea of mist, 

 amongst some cirrhi and stratus, all in a blaze of 

 the ruddiest coppery hue. As it sank, the Nepal 

 peaks to the right assumed more definite, darker, and 

 gigantic forms, and floods of light shot across the misty 

 ocean, bathing the landscape around me in the most 

 wonderful and indescribable changing tints. As the 

 luminary was vanishing, the whole horizon glowed like 

 copper run from a smelting furnace, and when it had 

 quite disappeared, the little inequalities of the ragged edges 

 of the mist were lighted up and shone like a row of 

 volcanos in the far distance. I have never before or 

 since seen anything, which for sublimity, beauty, and 

 marvellous effects, could compare with what I gazed on 

 that evening from Choonjerma pass. In some of Turner's 

 pictures I have recognized similar effects, caught and fixed 

 by a marvellous effort of genius ; such are the fleeting hues 

 over the ice, in his "Whalers," and the ruddy fire in 

 his " Wind, Steam, and Rain," which one almost fears to 

 touch. Dissolving views give some idea of the magic 

 creation and dispersion of the effects, but any combination 

 of science and art can no more recal the scene, than 

 it can the feelings . of awe that crept over me, during 

 the hour I spent in solitude amongst these stupendous 

 mountains. 



The moon guided us on our descent, which was to the 



