The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1878-01-18


way over topping crags of lava, until
perhaps the grandest sight of the whole
mountain presented itself At his foot
was deep. narrow, impossible gully
! in whose bottom snow lay. where
the inclination was not too steep.
! Beyond il a line of rocky towers,
red, grim and terrible, ran ripht
towards the summit, its upper end
lost in the clouds, though, as at in
tcrvals, they broke or shifted, one could
dcscry, far, far above, n wilderness of
snow. Had a Kurd ever travelled so
far, he might lave taken this for the
palace of the Jim. Then came the
struggle between the imagination,
longing to feast itself upon the majesty
and the wonder of the scene, and the
eXigcncy of the tremendous task of the
ascent. Mr.. Bryce found that the
strain on the observing senses seemed
too great for fancy or emotion to have
any scope. This was race against
time, in which he could only scan the
cliffs for route. refer constantly to his
watch. husband his strength by morscls
of food taken mt frequent intervals. and
endeavor to conceive how IL particular
block or bit of slope would look when
seen the other way in descending.
| Climbing on and ON, sometimes erect
ing little piles of stone to mark the
way, like Poucct without his brothers
so absorbed that the solemn grandeur
ofthe scenery Impressed him less than
on many less striking mountains, the
solitary traveller consumed the precious
hours until he found himself at the top
of the rock-rih, and on the edge of a !
precipice, which stopped further pro-
gress i'll that direction, but showed |
him, through the clouds which noatcd
around him-rcal clouds, not generally |
diliused mist--ihe summit barely one |
thousand feet above him. 70 accom-
plish that distance, he had to choose be-
tween two courses, both almost imprac-
ticabie; the first was to return to the |
long slopes of rolling stones which he |
had deserted, get up the cliffs at the |
top and so on TO the upper slopes of
rock or inclined snow which lead TO the
summit. This involved renewal of
the terrible labor he had already found |
almost uncomfortable. The second was
TO turn back and descend into vast
snow basin, lying southeast of the sum-
nit, and whose northwest acclivitv |
formed in fact its side, which was so |
steep as to require step cutting and Il
|
hours were wearing on and night |
upon the mountain would probably
mean death TO brave man (Whosc |
clothing was insufficient even for the
day time, for his ovcrcoat had been
stolen OH Russian railway: the de-
csion had TO be taken quickly. lie de-
cided for the snow basin, relraced his |
steps from the prccipicc, climbed into |
The basin along the border of a trcacher-
Gus ice slope, and attacked the friablc
rocks, so rotten that neither feet nor
hands could get firm hold, tloundering
pitiably. because too tired for rush. |
All the way up this rock slope, where
the strong snlphurous smell led Mr..
Bryce TO hope he should find some
trace of an crupiivc vent, il was so
"dclightinlly volcanic" but where he
only found Jumps of minerals and
piece of gypsom with fine crystals, he
was constantly gazing at the upper end
OF the toi,somc road for signs of craos
and snow fields above. But soft mist |
curtain hung there, where the snow |
seemed TO begin, and who could tell |
what lay beyond? The solitude must.
indeed, have been awful then, for
everything like certainty and calcula-
ton had ceased. From the trcmcn-
dons height, little Ararat. living he did !
not know how many thousand feet |
of beneath him, looked to the climber
like a broken obclisk. And he could |
only imagine the plain, misty. dream |
like cXpanSc below. Did he dare TO |
think Of the human life, of the peaceful
tents, Tie cheerful fires. the voices |
away there in the depth of distance, ms
he stood alone amid the eternal snow.
with misis TO the left and above him. |
and range of black prccipiccs which !
shut in the view upon the right. and |
just lbclow him clouds SETTLING like
waves above the savage pinnaclcs. the |
towers of the palace of the Jim, past
which his upward path had lain. Only |
one hour was before him now: at its |
end he must turn back-if indeed, his |
strength could hold out for that other
hour. lie struggled on mp the crum-
bling rocks, now 10 the right. now to
the left, as the foothold looked n little |
firmcr on either side, until suddenly |
the rock-slope came to an end, and he |
stepped ont upon the almost level snow |
at the top OF it into the teeth of the |
strong west wind, into cold so great |
that an icicle enyoloped the lower half
ofhis face at once, and did not melt un-
I'll four hours afterward. He tightcned |
i'll his loose light coat with Spanish |
neck-scarf, and walked straight on over
the snow, following the rise, seeing |
only about thirty yards ahead of him in |
the thick mist. Time was flving: i'll
the invisible summit of the Mountain |
of the Ark were indeed far on now, If
this gentle rise stretched on and on. |
that summit must remain unseen bv |
wi ln nj 10.
n feat that he might look upon its |
sacred emincncc. lie trailed the point
of the lee aX in the soft snow 10 mark |
the backward track. for there was no
longer any landmark all was cloud on |
every side. Suddenly lie felt with |
amazement that the ground was falling |
away 10 the north, and he stood still. |
pull of the west wind drove away |
the mist on the opposite side TO that bv |
which he had come, and his eyes rested |
ou the Paradise plain at an abyssma |
depth below. The solitary traveller
stood on the top of Mount Ararat. with |
the history of the world spread beneath |
his gaze, and all around him scene |
which reduced that history TO pigmv |
proportions, and man himself TO inf |
mite littleness.
Mr.. Bryce has given 10 tie world
wonderful word picture of that amazing
and awful spectacle, OF that ..landscape
which is now what il was before man
crept forth on the earth, the mountains
which stand about the valleys rs they |
stood when the volcanic fires that piled !
them We're long ago eXtinguished :" but
he could not tell us what were his
thoughts, his feelings there, what the
awe and yearning that came over him
in that tremendous solitude, where
Mature siIs enthroned, serenely calm,
and speaks 10 her children only in the
storm and earthquake that level their
dwellings in The dust" His vision
ranged over the vast cxpanse, within
whose bounds are the chain of the Cau-
cAsus. dimlV mnne ont hnI Nazhnk