36 
NARRATIVE. 
beautifully wooded ravine from the south, and joins 
the other where we encamped at Bdltal. Leaving the 
stream, we then mounted a very steep ascent for 
about four miles, through a pretty wood most of the 
way. An Ash and a Maple were common ; the latter 
is Ace?' pseiidopIata7ius, identical with one of the 
European species often planted in England. The black 
currant here grows wild. There were almost no pine 
trees, which always seem to prefer a northern exposure. 
Towards the top of this first ascent, the arboreal 
vegetation is almost limited to birch; but there is 
beautiful green sward, with a great profusion of wild 
flowers, right up to the snow ; primroses of several 
species were the most noticeable. In some places 
there were quantities of wild onions. The road we 
had ascended was in many places rather trying to the 
nerves, being very steep, and sometimes consisting 
merely of a platform of brushwood attached to the 
face of the precipice. This road, owing to its steep- 
ness, is quite impassable for baggage animals after a 
fall of snow, and it is then necessary either to wait at 
Bdltal until the snow has melted, or to follow the 
stream up a very narrow rocky gorge, with precipices of 
from 500 to 1000 feet on either side. This gorge, how- 
ever, is only practicable when filled up by snow to 
about fifty feet in depth, as it usually is early in the 
season — it is then the usual route ; and at that season, 
in order to avoid the avalanches, it is necessary to 
start at night and get over the pass before sunrise. 
Avalanches do not fall until late in the day, after the 
sun begins to melt the snow. 
Erom the top of the first ascent, 1500 feet above 
Baltal, the view is one of the grandest I have ever 
