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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0046 |
The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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Still, here the mountain was, and what it lacked in grandeur
was made up for in beauty, for its sides were covered with the
most exquisite meadows and copses. In Kashmir there are
many beautiful meadows, but none to compare with those of
the Ever-White Mountain. These were such as I have never
seen equalled. Masses of colour, flowers of every kind, whole
meadows of irises and tiger-lilies and columbines, and grace-
ful, stately fir trees scattered about to relieve any excess of
colour and add to the beauty of the whole. And, looking
closer, we found ferns of the most delicate tracery, deep blue
gentians, golden buttercups, azaleas, orchids, and numbers of
other flowers of every type of beauty, all in their freshest
summer bloom.
The following day we visited some springs which form one
of the sources of the Sungarí, and on the next we ascended
the mountain. The trees became fewer and fewer, and we
emerged on to open slopes covered with long grass and dwarf
azaleas, heather, yellow poppies, and gentians. Except the
steepness there was no difficulty in the ascent, and we made
for a saddle between two rugged peaks which crowned the
mountain. We pressed eagerly on to reach this, as from it we
hoped to look out beyond, far away over Corea on the opposite
side. At last we reached the saddle, and then, instead of the
panorama we had expected, we looked down in astonishment
on a most beautiful lake in a setting of weird, fantastic cliffs
just at our feet. We were, in fact, on an extinct volcano, and
this lake filled up what had once been its crater. The waters
were of a peculiarly deep clear blue, and situated here at the
very summit of a mountain, and held in on every side by
rugged precipitous cliffs, this lake was particularly striking.
We tried to descend to its brim, but could find no way down the
cliffs; so, after boiling a thermometer to ascertain the altitude,
I set out to ascend the highest of the rocky peaks which formed
a fringe around it. The climb was a stiff one, but I succeeded
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