84 
THE SUKKERTOPPEN. 
any that belongs to the recognized desert, the Sahara, 
or the South American Arridas ; for in these tropical 
wastes there is rarely wanting some group of Euphor- 
bia or stunted Gum Arabic trees, to qualify by their 
contrast the general barrenness. It was startling to 
see, beneath a smiling sun and upon the level of the 
all-fertilizing sea, an entire country without an ap- 
parent trace of vegetable life. 
The hills had the peculiar configuration that be- 
longs to the metamorphic rocks. Their summits were 
gnarled and torn ; and in the immediate foreground, 
some gneissoid spurs of lesser elevation were so round- 
ed as to resemble gigantic bowlders. The axis of the 
chain seemed to incline rudely from the N.N.W. to the 
S.S.E. Its sides were nearly destitute of those minor 
valleys that characterize the more recent deposits. 
Yet, even at fifteen miles distance, I could remark the 
clean abrupt edge of the fractures, which creased their 
otherwise symmetrical outline. 
Over these hills the snow lay in patches, occupy- 
ing principally the protected and dependent grooves. 
But, with the exception of a few escarped faces, too pre- 
cipitous to retain it, the various inciinations of the sur- 
face appeared to be covered equally, without regard to 
their exposure toward diff"erent points of the compass. 
Far ofi'to the south and east, the glacier showed its 
characteristic pinnacle. 
