Opposite To Where I Struck It Stood An Extraordinary Hill Or Ridge, Consisting Of A Huge Red Turtle Back Having A Number Of Enormous Red Stones Almost Egg-Shaped, Traversing, Or Rather Standing In A Row Upon, Its Whole Length Like A Line Of Elliptical Tors.

I could compare it to nothing else than an enormous oolitic monster of the turtle kind carrying its eggs upon its back.

A few cypress pine-trees grew in the interstices of the rocks, giving it a most elegant appearance. Hoping to find some rock or other reservoir of water, I rode over to this creature, or feature. Before reaching its foot, I came upon a small piece of open, firm, grassy ground, most beautifully variegated with many-coloured vegetation, with a small bare piece of ground in the centre, with rain water lying on it. The place was so exquisitely lovely it seemed as if only rustic garden seats were wanting, to prove that it had been laid out by the hand of man. But it was only an instance of one of Nature's freaks, in which she had so successfully imitated her imitator, Art. I watered my horse and left him to graze on this delectable spot, while I climbed the oolitic's back. There was not sufficient water in the garden for all my horses, and it was actually necessary for me to find more, or else the region would be untenable.

The view from this hill was wild and strange; the high, bald forehead of the mountain was still four or five miles away, the country between being all scrub.

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