202 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
a want of smartness and ready alacrity in their 
manner of handling the ropes and performing the 
various duties of the ship that showed at once 
their great natural inferiority to British seamen. On 
our way to Muttra we found the scenery new,, and, 
I may add, even interesting. The rugged peaks, 
upon which no marks of vegetation could be traced, 
and the barren aspect of the coast, gave an air 
of desolate grandeur to the whole scene remarkably 
imposing. The sight was the more striking from 
being unusual, and its natural repulsiveness was 
abundantly countervailed by the severe sublimity by 
which it was singularly characterized. 
There is a something indescribably grand in that 
wild and stern desolation which Nature sometimes dis- 
plays, as the traveller traces the almost endless variety 
of feature which she presents in different regions of 
the world. Whatever asperity those features may ex- 
hibit, they are never positively repulsive. There is a 
visible symmetry amid the superficial ruggedness, and 
a blended harmony of arrangement that cannot fail to 
arrest the eye wherever it turns, and to elevate the 
mind with an impressiveness that causes it to ff look 
through Nature/’ even in her harshest aspect of deso- 
lation, and trace there the marvellous workings of an 
Omnipotent hand. View her how you will, the asso- 
ciations which crowd upon the mind are never painful ; 
— they may provoke a grave and solemn tone of 
thought, but it is always such as produces a pleasing 
reaction upon the heart, which takes an impression 
through the mind, softened by its reflection, and 
strengthened by its own quick and fervid impulses. 
