4 NATURE'S SOLITUDE. 
with feelings of extreme delight, but was now to 
leave it for wilder and more uncultivated regions. 
Having advanced a short distance through the 
opening pass, I again turned to take a parting look. 
The projecting rocks now interrupted my view, and 
when I had proceeded down the deep and gloomy 
recess of this stupendous ravine, “ wild and lone- 
some as ever mountain eagle or savage vulture 
soared above,” how changed the prospect from that 
which had so recently engaged my admiration! 
Alpine peaks reared on either hand their vast naked 
masses, that cast a dark and dreary. shadow on the 
abyss below. 
** Soon we raise the eye to range 
O’er prospects wild, grotesque, and strange ; 
Sterile mountains, rough and steep, 
That bound abrupt the valley deep, 
Heaving to the clear blue sky 
Their ribs of granite, bare and dry ; 
And ridges, by the torrents worn, 
Thinly streak'd with scraggy thorn, 
Which fringes Nature's savage dress, 
Yet scarce relieves her nakedness.” 
An oppressive silence reigned throughout this 
gloomy glen, broken only by the mountain torrent, 
as it rushed down some shelving rock, or the faint 
passing breeze, which seemed to whisper to the 
heart, “ This is Nature’s solitude.”’ 
Our ride was tedious in the extreme, as we had 
frequently to dismount and lead our horses over 
