MAGNIFICENT SCENERY. 
133 
shelter and dispose of the poison as it is delivered from 
the ^ armed vessels of reckless men’ previously spoken of. 
‘‘At half-past five it was broad daylight, and we could 
look around us: the entire skywas of one uniform rosy 
tint. Even the zenith was of this colour, and the con- 
trast between the brilliant heavens and the deep blue of 
the distant mountains was magniticent: I never before 
saw the outlines of the mountains so clearly defined, — 
never their blue so deep, never the sky so brilliant. They 
lifted themselves in their stately grandeur far into tlie 
morning sky, towering over the hills at their base with 
protecting care, while these in turn hung over an undu- 
lating countzy that waved itself almost imperceptibly 
into the low rice-fields along the rivci'-banks. 
“Nor was it in one direction alone that this view met 
the eye ; the panorama was perfect. We had ascended 
the windings of the river sufficiently high to place even 
high mountains between us and the sea, and now the 
smooth surface of the river, unbroken ly either isle or 
rock, and slightly rippled by the morning air, presented 
the appeaz'ance of a small lake rather than of a running 
stream. We had a jutting point below us, another 
about a mile ahead, and the river itself seemed to widen 
between them; hence its similarity to a lake. 
“As we passed over this quiet basin of water and 
turned the upper point into another lake, the bosom of 
the water was no longer unbroken. 
“ Uncouth-looking boats, with noisy boatmen and 
fiapping sails, were sprinkled plentifully over its saffron- 
coloured breast, while schools of fish leaped bodily into 
the air and made the water foam again in their descent. 
