y atmosphere. From the extreme
summit of one snow-laden peak, whose white steeple seems truly a
heavenward-directed finger, I gaze abstractedly all around upon nothing
but dark masses of gently-waving hills, steep, weary ascents and
descents, green and gold, and yellow and brown, and one's eyes rest upon
a maze of thin white lines intertwining them all. These are the main
roads. I am alone. My men are far behind. I am awed with an unnatural
sense of bewildered wonderment in the midst of all this glory of the
earth.

Everything is so vast, so grand, so overpowering. Murmurings of the
birds alone break the sense of sadness and loneliness. Away yonder
full-grown pine trees, if discernible at all, are dwarfed so as to
appear like long coarse grass. For some thirty li the road runs through
beautiful woods, high above the valleys and the noise of the river; and
now we are running down swiftly to a point where two ranges meet, only
to toil on again, slowly and wearily, up an awful gradient for two hours
or more. But the labor and all its fatiguing arduousness are nothing
when one gets to the top, for one beholds here one of the most
magnificent mountain panoramas in all West China. Far away, just peeping
prettily from the silvered edges of the bursting clouds, are the giant
peaks which separate Tali-fu from Yang-pi--white giants with rugged,
cruel edges pointing upwards, piercing the clouds asunder as a ship's
bow pierces the billows of the deep; and then, gradually coming from out
the mist, are no less than eight distinct ranges of mountains from
14,000 feet to 16,000 feet high, besides innumerable minor heights,
which we have traversed with much labor during the past four days, all
rich with coloring and natural grandeur seen but seldom in all the
world. Switzerland could offer nothing finer, nothing more sweeping,
nothing more beautiful, nothing more awe-inspiring. With the glorious
grandeur of these wondrous hills, rising and falling playfully around
the main ranges, the marvellous tree growth, the delicate contrasts of
the formidable peaks and the dainty, cultivated valleys, and the face of
Nature everywhere absolutely unmarred, Switzerland could in no way
compare.

Is it then surprising that I look upon these stupendous masses with
wonder, which seem to breathe only eternity and immensity?

The air is pure as the breath of heaven, all is still and peaceful, and
the fact that in the very nature of things one cannot rus