VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAINS. Chap. XXIII. 
a mountain or a hill on any part of its surface. 
Behind me, to the north, were hills and mountains 
of every size and form, separated by valleys in 
which I observed, in some places, little farm-houses 
and patches of cultivated land. The tops of these 
mountains, and by far the greater portion of their 
sides, were bleak and barren, yielding only some 
wiry grasses, a species of stunted thorny Rhamnus 
(? R. zizyphus ) ; and here and there, at this season, 
a little Campanula, not unlike the Blue Bells of 
Scotland, showed itself amongst the clay-slate rocks 
which were cropping out over all the hills. In 
the spring there are no doubt many other kinds of 
flowers which blossom unseen amongst these wild 
and barren mountains. 
This map of nature which lay before me was 
one of no common kind. It reminded me of the 
views from the outer ranges of the Himalayas over 
the plains of Hindostan, with this difference, that 
these Chinese mountains rival in barren wildness 
many parts of the Scottish Highlands. When I 
was in full enjoyment of the scenery around and 
beneath me, my companions pointed to the setting 
sun, and suggested that it was time to go down to 
the temples. Night was already settling down 
upon the vast plain, and objects were becoming 
gradually indistinct there, while the last rays of 
the setting sun still illuminated the peaks of the 
western mountains. 
When we got back to the temple the good priest 
pretended to have been greatly alarmed on account 
