Chapter III. 
which was here visible in all its splendour. They had now 
come further north-west, and hence the northernmost group 
of the chain appeared nearer to the central group, which 
from this point also appeared to be the highest of all, and to 
show the greatest extent of glacier. 
The sky was clear over the mountains to westward, but dark 
and stormy in the east. Right and left stretched an undulating 
plain with low rounded hills, reddish or earthy yellow, dotted 
with dark green patches of euphorbia, or of the light and finely 
cut foliage of the acacia. Farther off, the landscape melted 
into the misty distance, and finally vanished from sight near 
the foot of the mighty spurs of the range. 
Moore was reminded in these regions of the Alps as seen 
from the Piedmontese or Lombard Plains, but the comparison 
does not hold good. The difference is profound, although so 
subtle as to baffle analysis. It is true that the far-off slopes 
clad with elephant grass, and the swamps hidden under tufted 
papyrus resemble our hills and our cultivated valleys. There is 
no definite sign to indicate that those far-off plains, which to 
all appearance might consist of meadows and cornfields, maize 
plantations and orchards, are in reality the lair of elephants,, 
buffaloes, antelopes and lions. Yet still the picture is in a 
different key, with a grim solemnity of its own. The likeness is 
the fruit rather of a mental comparison than of a real, direct 
impression from Nature. Signs of the handiwork of man are 
nearly totally absent. The huts of the natives, their banana 
groves and their simple crops are only just visible on closer 
inspection of the landscape, of which they form an insignificant 
detail, hardly touching its virgin and primitive aspect. 
A little further on the party crossed their last forest, the 
finest of all that had lain across their path, and swarming with 
94 
