KOOROOGATE, OR THE DRY POND. 
257 
any deviation on one side or the other. The unsocial dimen¬ 
sions of the road, as well as the severity of the weather, so 
pressed our faculties, as apparently to “ bind up every sense in 
alabaster and so evident was the effect, that even the usual 
clatter, and various noises, belonging to the goolam division in 
our rear, were hushed into some respect for the benumbing 
demon of the scene. In about an hour and a half’s slow march¬ 
ing in this impeded way, we reached a very close defile, between 
rocks of a peculiarly wild and romantic character, shooting up 
into castellated towers and spires, projecting into huge buttresses, 
or receding into the sides of the chasm, deep and caverned. 
Amongst these picturesque battlements of nature, at the mouth 
of the ravine, we found the ruins of a caravansary. The situation 
of this pass might make it the gate of the valley ; it being so 
happily formed, that a very small force could maintain it against 
the largest body. It is known by the name of the Pass of Sibley; 
and the line of the mountain it intersects, runs in a direction 
N. E. and S. W. We crossed the range, over all its wide com¬ 
pass of snow, with nothing in view but the heads of hills, rising 
one over the other, covered with the same hoary veil. The air 
cut like a sword, till we descended to lower ground, where we 
found a large circular dell, entirely surrounded with a high natural 
embankment, formed by the hillocks diverging from the moun¬ 
tain’s sides. It is called Kooroogate, or the Dry Pond, and was 
the lake mentioned in this place by Tavernier. Not far from it, 
in a valley amidst the mountains, and bearing from hence N. E., 
may be seen a very singular cave. It runs to an unknown depth 
into the body of the rock; is very high from the floor to the top 
of its vaulted roof; and the rough ledges, along the whole interior, 
afford shelter for the nests of innumerable wild pigeons, and 
VOL. i. 
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