Prospects from the Summit, 
169 
put a little life into the gloomy fabric : its cracks and crevices were filled 
with several orchids, e.g.;, Epidendnim , and a small shrub belonging to 
the Pvperaceac, the roots of which liad entangled the rocks in a regular 
netwoi'k : it was by its help that we would have to climb the ravines hewn 
out of the main massif. Tlie possiliility of the climb was indeed 
dependent upon this same network, but this again required above evei y- 
thing else intrepid courage, tlie complete and free nse of the hands, and 
the close investigation of the stability of the roots and proj-ecting stones 
in the weathered and decayerl sanrlstone w^all, before one could trust the 
weight of one's body to them. A slip of the foot before the hand could 
steady itself at the halt that this growth or that chink offered, the loss of 
one's balance, or the breaking of a root, not only meant a most horrible 
smash for the unfortunate fellow himself, but the probable death, of a 
large number of his followers. A start was made on the daring enter- 
prise. We Europeans folloAved immefliately next to the guides. The 
procession clambered zig-zag. one following the other at a fixed distance 
and swinging from step to landing up the wall. T got a shudder the 
first time 1 looked below: the broAvn figures were climbing np the rocks 
like ants, and the thouaht that Avitli the bursting of a forehead band, the 
load might loose its sole and only sui)port, and in falling knock over one 
of the mon followinff, made me shut my eves, and not dare look behind 
again. Xo noise interrupted the dead silence which was only now and 
then broken hy the plunge of a stone that had crumbled its way loose. 
With the arrival at the top of the men ahead of me. T nlsn threw nivself 
ouite out of breath on the more secure flat and took another peep down 
tlie steep wall, but bnd to close mv fves and hasten awav, because every 
rtinmcnt T ini.i"ined T s'bnuld bo lienriuff tlio dentli-crv of someone who had 
fnllen over. As e.nch ctf the climbers reached the ridcre he uttered a loud 
shout of triumph like the ones before him. Tn the course of three hours 
+l)e last of tlie nartv finallv reached the tor), and now for the first time 
the anxious breast could breathe with freedom and one could appreciate 
in dumb delight the beautiful panorama which stretched beneath 
and near him in its absolutely infinite wealth of charm. Fpon 
our entrance to the valley of the Muyang we had rejoiced 
from the very bottom of our hearts over the wonderful landscape 
the same thing here, and vet acain another one opposite. Shall T describe 
it as more beautiful? T don't know. The magic of the moment excluded 
comparisons. In the solemn stillness of virgin nature, the vallev of the 
Muyang, strewn over with many a luxuriant oasis, stretched itself before 
us at our feet, but the eye sought in vain the roof of the house that we had 
left a few hours 1)efore : the work of man had Ix^en buried in the wanton- 
ness of Xatiire. "NTot a sign of active life, no noise of busv human hands 
disturbed the deep solemn calm in which 'Nature looked nroudly up 
towards us. and held us spell bound. Toward the S.E. and W. innumer- 
able mountain chains melted away into the surface of a green wav^-^ sea : 
only in the R.E. and in the far W. did the gloomy bleak rock masses of 
Mairari and in the S.W. the peculiar steeplo-like Mareppa-Emba the 
latter with a height of r5,r>00 feet — rise above this sea of vegetation, over 
which somewhat further to the W. the Erimitipu, and in W. by S. the 
