ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 
149 
1849 .] 
should have to stay the night, 'vve provided ourselves 
with sufficient provisions, and a large gourd to carry 
water. We walked some miles along the side of the 
marsh, on which were many curious aquatic birds, till 
we arrived at a deserted cottage, where we made our 
breakfast, and then turned off by a path through a wood. 
On passing this we found ourselves at the foot of a 
steep slope, covered with huge blocks of stone, in the 
greatest confusion, overgrown with coarse sedges and 
shrubs, rendering any ascent among them extremely 
difficult. Just above was the curious pillar we had seen 
from the village, and which we determined to reach. 
After a most fatiguing scramble over the rocks and 
among innumerable chasms, we found ourselves on the 
platform below the columnar mass, which rises perpen- 
dicularly thirty or forty feet, and then hangs over at the 
top aU round in a most curious and fearful manner. Its 
origin is very plainly to be seen. The pillar is of friable 
stone, in horizontal layers, and is constantly decaying 
away by the action of the weather. The top is formed 
by a stratum of hard crystalline rock, which resists the 
rain and sun, and is apparently now of the same dia- 
meter that the pillar which supports it originally was. 
We had thought, looking from below, that we could 
have proceeded along the ridge of the mountain to the 
further end, where the cave and picture-writings were 
to be found. Now however we saw the whole summit 
completely covered with the same gigantic masses of 
rock and the same coarse rigid vegetation which had ren- 
dered our ascent so difficult, and made our proceeding 
for miles along similar ground quite out of the question. 
