CAPE COMORIN. 
57 
of country on one side, and the mighty waste of 
waters on the other. The ascent towards the sum- 
mit is so precipitous, that no one has ever suc- 
ceeded in surmounting it. On the eastern side the 
land is flat and in a state of tolerably good culti- 
vation, while on the western it is mountainous and 
almost covered with jungle. The cape is frequently 
surrounded by a broad belt of clouds towards the 
top, and rises above this delicate drapery with a bold 
sharp outline, looking as if it were poised in mid- 
air by some invisible agency, its grand cone tower- 
ing in quiet relief against a brilliant sky, and realizing 
the sublime description of the poet : — 
“ As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form 
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.” 
At a short distance from the bottom of the hill is a 
choultry, much less ornamented than they usual- 
ly are, and so small as scarcely to alter the gene- 
rally sombre features of the landscape, which is here 
one of quiet solemnity ; nay, though the neighbour- 
hood is tolerably populous, considering that it is so 
remote from the larger towns, yet in the immediate 
vicinity of the mountain there is an appearance of 
solitariness that tends rather to fill the mind with 
images of tigers and other beasts of prey, which are 
continually prowling in all solitary places in this part 
of the peninsula, where they abound, than with the 
gentler recollections of social life and of sweet com- 
munion with our fellow-men. From the extreme 
