Magnificence of the Scenery

which meets the eye from the top of this mountain pass, On a clear day such as that with which we were favoured it makes a vivid impression on the mind, and the dullest of mortals could not fail to feel its influence. On the one band the great mountains at the head of the Clinton Valley with their snow and glacier-fed river and streams; on the other the Arthur Valley, 2600ft helow us, terminating in snow-topped mountains of great altitude, with blue-green patches here and there, denoting the glacier products of long-past ages still fullflling their share in Nature's great and mysterious work. We ate all deeply impressed with the magnificence of the scene, and we turn from its contemplation at the invitation of Ross to study the alpine forms of vegetation with which the ground is carpeted. We find the little pink drossera—a strange tittle vegetable trap for the unwary insect which alights en its little dewlike but gummy globules—busy at its curious work; bright red little oval berries grow thickly on a small plant hardly raised above the surface of the ground, whose botanical name I cannot give; while Ross searches for a little patch of edelweiss, whose whereabouts he had on a previous occasion discovered, and which he is fortunate in finding. Celmisias were flowering in the greatest profusion, but the Ranunculus lyalli was only found in bloom in one or two small patches, its season being almost over. We [unclear: spe] very pleasant hour, and at 5.30 [unclear: comme] the descent into the Arthur Valley. It [unclear: is] necessary for me to nay much about this [unclear: be] piece of walking through an irregular [unclear: and] cipitous track. It will readily be believed we were all pretty tired when at 7.15