MAGNIFICENT MOUNTAINS. 
691 
ings of the latter; re-echoed as they were a hundred-fold, from 
the long abyss of beetling rocks under which they took their 
struggling course. In short, from what I could discern through 
the gloom, every step I rode made me the more repine at having 
been obliged to travel such scenery in the darkness of night; and 
often, I could not refrain from bursting out into exclamations 
of admiration and regret. Indeed I discerned enough to con¬ 
vince me, that what I had then lost of this branch of mighty 
Taurus , was by far the most magnificent and sublime country I 
could have seen during my whole eastern tour. Other circum¬ 
stances besides those of sight certainly impressed this idea, and 
none more than the continued perils of our road; the narrow 
mountain-paths we pursued making me often shudder, lest one 
slip of the animal I rode should hurl us together into the tre¬ 
mendous gulfs below; a plunge of many hundred perpendicular 
feet. Here, I must confess, I felt my nerves vibrate, while I 
frequently exclaimed within myself, “ How fearfully grand ! ” 
But I am sure of the fact, that we then ascended steeps, and 
passed along rocky ledges scarcely wide enough to admit a single 
horse, on the brinks of precipices so terrifically high, that, in 
broad day-light I should not have dared them even on foot. 
How our animals accomplished such paths, must ever be a won¬ 
der to me ; and some too, with the heavy cases I had brought 
from Babylon, on their backs. Thus burthened, they scrambled 
over the most dangerous points, when it was so dark that nothing 
but some preternatural instinct seemed to guide them; and in 
the same way they moved with an unswerving pace along the 
narrowest ridges, with a wall of rock pressing one side, and the 
shelving path receding from their footsteps on the other. The 
baggage horses march in file; and what renders their progress 
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