weather, and the danger at this time attendant,
on climbing up and descending precipices.

There is much in a journey over these moun-
tains to puzzle, as well as amuse, the naturalist.
Many extraordinary natural curiosities have
fallen under our observation, in the diversified
appearance of mountains, rocks and valleys. We
have passed to-day the most ponderous, craggy and
over-jutting rocks we have heretofore met with,
many of which were elevated several hundred
feet above our heads, and seemed to threaten us
with impending danger; which was not a little
magnified, in our apprehensions, from observing
cast bodies of rock, which had evidently tum-
bled from their lofty summits into the valleys.
Had we been disposed to indulge fancy, we
might have figured to ourselves, in a view of
these rude mountains of rocks, many of those
descriptions met with in Roman, Greek or
Egyptian history, of amphitheatres, obelisks,
pyramids, &c. &c; whilst many others exhibit-
ed such regular, wavy appearences, interspersed
alternately with oaks and pines, and soil of
various hues, as seemed to challenge the painter
with his diversified shades of coloring. And could
we have observed here goats, white bears and
reindeer, with now and then a human being
clothed in skins and furs, and with weather a
little colder, we might, perhaps, have been led
to suppose ourselves in Lapland. A few settle-
ments are made in this tract, which are mostly