480 
MIDNIGHT WINTER MARCH. 
circumstances as ourselves. Hence we had sped very fairly on, 
till our horses began to lose time in the icy ravine ; however, 
though night caught us in our difficulties, the sky continued 
clear, and at nine o’clock the moon rose. By that hour we had 
got over no inconsiderable compass of ground, which consisted 
of one of the wildest countries imagination can conceive. 
Sometimes we rode along the tops of rocky hills, then wound 
by dark intricate mazes through the intersecting valleys, at 
other times were crashing the ice under our feet in crossing 
mountain-streams, and then would suddenly become immured 
between the meeting crags of deep hollows, worn by the annual 
spring-torrents from these everlasting hills. In all this, the 
moon had been a great assistance, illuminating with her full 
light the broad bosoms of the rocks, or in closer paths lending 
us a friendly ray ; so that while we had her lamp above us, we 
passed over the most treacherous ground with tolerable security ; 
and in proportion to our descent, both snow and ice gradually 
disappearing from our immediate road, promised still surer 
footing. But all at once the clouds beat up from behind the 
mountains, and gathered so thickly over the sky, that in a short 
time the moon became totally obscured, and I began to fear, 
from the complete blackness around, that we should not only 
lose our way, but end our fatiguing march for the remainder of 
the night under a heavy fall of snow. At all events, however, 
I could now only proceed ; and about ten o’clock we found 
ourselves in a long narrow valley running to the north-east, 
with a bitter wind from that point blowing direct in our faces. 
A small river called the Yeltomar wound through it, and along 
its bank we guided our course for a considerable time, till the 
road struck across the rocky projections of a mountain ; where, 
