Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 253 (Color Image)

0253	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. vIII.] A BATTLEMENT OF PEAKS. 211

that night, I felt that for the next two or three

weeks we should have harder and harder work

before us, I recollect that evening as one of

those in all my life in which I have felt in the

keenest spirits.

At the first dawn of day on the following

morning we were astir. The small stream

was frozen solid, and the air bitingly cold ; so

we hurried about loading up, to keep ourselves

warm, had a good breakfast, and, as the sun

rose, started off straight at the mountain wall

—a regular battlement of rocky peaks covered

with snow, where it was possible, but for the

most part too steep for snow to lie. After

travelling for three or four miles, a valley

suddenly opened up to the left. The guide

immediately remembered it, and said that up

it was an easy pass which would completely

outflank the mountain barrier. The going was

good. I left the ponies, and in my eagerness

hurried on rapidly in front of them, straining

to see the top of the pass, and the " other

side "—that will-o'-the-wisp which ever attracts

explorers and never satisfies them, for there is

ever another side beyond. The height was

beginning to tell, and the pass seemed to

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