Just At Our
Feet Was One Of The Frail And Picturesque-Looking Pine Bridges Spanning
The Torrent; While Just Below It Another Mountain River Came Tumbling
Down, And, Joining With Its Dashing Friend, They Both Rolled On In
Life Together.
As soon as our traps arrived, F. and I had a souse in
the quietest pool we could find, and anything so cold I never felt;
it was almost as if one was turned into stone, and stopping in it
more than a second was out of the question.
After breakfast and a
SIESTA, we sallied out to try and explore the head of the cataract
above us. After rather a perilous ascent over loose moss and mould,
and clutching at roots of shrubs and trees, we were brought to a
stand by a huge mass of perpendicular rock, which effectually barred
us from the spot through which the water took its final leap. The
upper course of the torrent, however, amply repaid us for our labour,
for it ran through the most lovely dell I ever saw; and as it bounded
down from rock to rock, and roared and splashed along, it seemed to
know what there was before it, and to be rejoicing at the prospect
of its mighty jump. Torrent as it seemed, it was evidently nothing
to what it could swell to when in a rage, for here and there, far
out of its present reach, and scattered all about, were torn and
tattered corpses of forest trees, which had evidently been sucked up
and carried along until some rock more abrupt than its neighbours,
had brought them to a stand and left them, bleached and rotting, in
the summer's sun. At night we found ourselves glad to exchange our
usual covering of a single sheet for a heavy complement of blankets,
and found our encampment not the least too warm. The authorities here
were particularly civil and obliging, and supplied us with the best
of butter, eggs, and milk. The latter was particularly good, and,
not having often tasted cow's milk in the Plains, we did it ample
justice here.
JUNE 20. - Found it rather hard to turn out this morning, in
consequence of the great change in the temperature, but got under weigh
very well considering. Our path led us up the main torrent towards the
snow, and in the first three miles we crossed about twenty pine-tree
bridges thrown across the stream, some of them consisting of a single
tree, and all in the rudest style of manufacture. Near one of these,
under an immense mass of rock, we passed our first snow. It looked,
however, so strange and unexpected, that we both took it for a block of
stone; and being thatched, as it were, with leaves and small sticks,
&c., and discoloured on all sides, it certainly bore no outward
resemblance to what it really was.
After an almost perpendicular ascent up natural flights of steps, we
reached our next stage, Poshana - a little mud-built, flat-roofed
settlement on the mountain-side.
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