116 Diary of an Excursion to the Shatool [No. 170. 



sources of the Roopin river, of which the glen below this valley, is 

 found, after a long and steep descent, to be completely blocked across 

 by a precipitous wall of black rock, from 250 to 300 feet high. Over 

 this the accumulated streams leap down by two falls, which, to the best of 

 my memory, surpass in beauty the finest in Switzerland : the water 

 perfectly clear, and reduced to white mist like the Staubbach, falls in 

 the softest wreaths over succesive tiers of ledges, and about a mile lower 

 down, where the two falls are brought into one line, the effect is exceed- 

 ingly fine. The path has hitherto kept on the right bank of the stream, 

 but crosses between the falls, where in 1833, a deep snow-bed supplied a 

 bridge ; but this year, it is much melted here, though at the base of 

 the lower fall, the river passes under an enormous mass of it. Here the 

 path improves, following the narrow glen alongside the river, now 

 flowing gently for a few miles as if to rest after its great leap. The 

 mountain-cataract, which, having leaped from its more dazzling height, 



' Even in the foaming strength of its abyss, 

 (Which casts up misty columns that become 

 Clouds raining from the re-ascended skies,) 

 Lies low but mighty still.' 



The lateral cliffs all down to Rasrung are continuous on each side of the 

 valley, and so whitened with cascades, that the scene considerably 

 resembles Lauterbrunnen, in the Canton Bern, and fully deserves that 

 name — " nothing but springs." There is here indeed no wood, the whole 

 being quite above the region of forest ; but the grassy or rocky talus at 

 the base of the crags, as well as the small levels by the water, are richly 

 enamelled with flowers : — such as Primula stuartii, purpurea, and glabra : 

 Sieversia elata, Aconitum dissectum, Ligularia arnicoides and another, 

 Polemonium cseruleum, Scrophularia urticsefolia, the blue Meconopsis, 

 and a host of Composite and Labiatse, especially near the falls; the 

 Greek valerian is very common, and in full bloom, as is a very pretty 

 species of Forget-me-not ; these, and the Lotus corniculatus are amongst 

 the many examples which in these mountains frequently replace us for 

 a moment or two in our native land : 



* And, as in forts to which beleaguerers win 

 Unhoped-for entrance through some friend within, 

 One clear idea wakened in the breast, 

 By Memory's magic, lets in all the rest.' 



