scale than the first gate,
though not so startling and violent in its features. The bare walls on
either side fall sheer to the water, and the road, crossing the Sihoon by
a lofty bridge of a single arch, is cut along the face of the rock. Near
the bridge a subterranean stream, almost as large as the river, bursts
forth from the solid heart of the mountain. On either side gigantic masses
of rock, with here and there a pine to adorn their sterility, tower to the
height of 6,000 feet, in some places almost perpendicular from summit to
base. They are worn and broken into all fantastic forms. There are
pyramids, towers, bastions, minarets, and long, sharp spires, splintered
and jagged as the turrets of an iceberg. I have seen higher mountains,
but I have never seen any which looked so high as these. We camped on a
narrow plot of ground, in the very heart of the tremendous gorge. A
soldier, passing along at dusk, told us that a merchant and his servant
were murdered in the same place last winter, and advised us to keep watch.
But we slept safely all night, while the stars sparkled over the chasm,
and slips of misty cloud hung low on the thousand pinnacles of rock.

When I awoke, the gorge lay in deep shadow; but high up on the western
mountain, above the enormous black pyramids that arose from the river, the
topmost pinnacles of rock sparkled like molten silver, in the full gush of
sunrise. The great mountain, blocking up the gorge behind us, was bathed
almost to its foot in the rays, and, seen through such a dark vista, was
glorified beyond all other mountains of Earth. The air was piercingly cold
and keen, and I could scarcely bear the water of the Sihoon on my
sun-inflamed face. There was a little spring not far off, from which we
obtained sufficient water to drink, the river being too muddy. The spring
was but a thread oozing from the soil; but the Hadji collected it in
handfuls, which he emptied into his water-skin, and then brought to us.

The morning light gave a still finer effect to the manifold forms of the
mountains than that of the afternoon sun. The soft gray hue of the rocks
shone clearly against the cloudless sky, fretted all over with the shadows
thrown by their innumerable spires and jutting points, and by the natural
arches scooped out under the cliffs. After travelling less than an hour,
we passed the riven walls of the mighty gateway, and rode again under the
shade of pine forests. The height of the mount