face was covered with a mass of shrubs, terminating at a still 

 higher elevation in a shroud of dark-coloured moss. 



As we passed onward through this singular valley, occasion- 

 al torrents, formed by the rains and dissolving snows at the 

 close of winter, had left behind them, in many places, perpet- 

 ual monuments of their progress, in perpendicular, narrow, 

 and irregular paths, of immense length, where they had washed 

 the precipices naked and white from the simimit of the moun- 

 tain to the base. 



Wide and deep chasms, also, at times met the eye, both on 

 the summits and the sides, and strongly impressed the imagi- 

 nation with the thought, that a hand, of immeasurable power, 

 had rent asunder the solid rocks, and tumbled them into 

 the subjacent valley. Over all, hoary cliffs, rising with 

 proud supremacy, frowned awfully on the world below, and 

 finished the landscape. 



By our side the Saco was alternately visible and lost, and 

 increased, almost at every step, by the junction of tributary 

 streams. Its course was a perpetual cascade, and with its 

 sprightly murmurs furnished the only contrast to the majestic 

 scenery around us. 



