932 Journal of a trip through Kunawur. [Nov. 



often attacking the flocks and even cows during the severity of winter, 

 and that he himself possessing flocks, knew it to his cost. In this case 

 it is most probable that the animal had left the forest below the pass, 

 and traced the sheep by the scent they had left on the snow. 



On gaining the summit of the pass, the thermometer only indicated 

 a temperature of 45° at 10 a. m., and a cold keen wind was blowing 

 from the southward. From this elevated spot we looked back over the 

 snow-clad mountains, beneath whose summits or along whose sides we 

 had for several days been travelling. 



Viewed from this height they appeared to be nearly on a level with 

 ourselves, and wearing a look of cold and dreary solitude, which 

 gave a sternness to the scene not altogether pleasing to behold, as 

 one could not help experiencing a feeling of loneliness and melancholy 

 at the thought of losing the way, or being benighted on their hoary 

 summits. Rising conspicuously above the rest were seen the mighty 

 Kuldun peaks, presenting in the glare of noon a dazzling whiteness 

 that pained the eye to view ; beneath this group we had encamped 

 at Chini. 



" Far as the eye could reach, or thought could roam, " all was 

 one broad unvarying waste of snowy peaks, unbroken by a single 

 shrub or tree, except in the depths of the darkly wooded glen, which 

 stretched along the bottom of the pass where we were standing. Not 

 a sound nor a rustle even caught the ear, save the rushing of the keen 

 wind that was drifting the snow in wreath or spray before it ; not a 

 living thing was seen to stir amidst this wild and majestic scenery. 

 All was so calm and still that it chilled one to behold it, and but for 

 the ragged and shattered peaks around, which told of the fearful 

 warring of the elements upon their crests, the traveller might almost 

 suppose that the elevation had carried him beyond the strife of storms, 

 to which this lower world is subject. It is amidst scenes like these, 

 where words cannot be found adequately to describe the grandeur 

 and magnificence that every where delight the eye, that man is lead 

 involuntarily to acknowledge his own comparative weakness and 

 insignificance, and as he views the stern cold majesty of the wintry 

 and never fading waste of snows by which he is surrounded, spite of 

 himself his thoughts revert to Him, the impress of whose mighty 

 hand pervades the scene, and by whose merciful care alone, he is 

 guided safe through countless and undreamed of dangers. 



From the crest of this pass, looking north-easterly, we beheld far 

 below us, at the depth of 5,000 feet, the town of Soongnum, to attain 

 to which we had still before us a tolerable day's journey. On making 



