523 



us successively, to sleep in the mountain. 

 Among those who remained I admired the ad- 

 dress of a Congo Black, who, bearing on his 

 head a large dipping needle, held it constantly 

 steady, notwithstanding the extreme declivity of 

 the rocks. The fog had disappeared by degrees 

 in the bottom of the valley ; and the scattered 

 lights we perceived below us caused a double 

 illusion. The steeps appeared still more dange- 

 rous than they really were ; and, during six 

 hours of continual descent, we thought our- 

 selves equally near the farms at the foot of the 

 Silla. We heard very distinctly the voices of 

 men, and the shrill notes of the guitars. Sound is 

 generally so well propagated from below upward, 

 that in a balloon at three thousand toises of ele- 

 vation the barking of dogs is sometimes heard*. 



We did not arrive till ten at night at the 

 bottom of the valley, overcome with fatigue and 

 thirst. We had walked for fifteen hours, nearly 

 without stopping ; the soles of our feet were 

 made sore by the asperities of a rocky soil, and 

 the hard and dry stalks of the grapes. We had 

 been obliged to pull off our boots, the soles 

 having become too slippery. On declivities 

 destitute of shrubs, or ligneous herbs, which 

 may be grasped by the hand, the danger of ther 

 descent is diminished by walking barefoot. In 



* Mr. Gay-Lussac in his ascent on the 15th of September 

 1805. 



