ovisions enough for the
route, and how were these to be obtained? Again, thought I, we must
trust to Providence, who has already so manifestly extended a helping
hand to us.

"I observed that the mountain on the southern face descended with an
easier slope toward the plain, than upon the north where it is bold and
precipitous. From this I concluded that a greater quantity of snow must
be melted, and run off in that direction. Doubtless then, thought I,
there will be a greater amount of fertility on that side; and I
continued to ride on, until I came in sight of the grove of willows and
cotton-trees, which line the stream above the valley here. I soon
reached them, and saw that there was a stream with considerable
pasturage near its borders--much more than where we had encamped I tied
my horse to a tree, and climbed some distance up the mountain in order
to get a view of the country south and west. I had not got to a great
height when I caught sight of the singular chasm that seemed to open up
in the plain. I was attracted with this peculiarity, and determined to
examine it. Descending again to where I had left my horse, I mounted,
and rode straight for it. In a short time I stood upon the brink of the
precipice, and looked down into this smiling valley.

"I cannot describe my sensations at that moment. Only they, whose eyes
have been bent for days on the sterile wilderness, can feel the full
effect produced by a scene of fertility such as there presented itself.
It was late in the autumn, and the woods that lay below me--clad in all
the variegated livery of that season--looked like some richly-coloured
picture. The music of birds ascended from the groves below, wafted
upward upon the perfumed and aromatic air; and the whole scene appeared
more like a fabled Elysium than a reality of Nature I could hardly
satisfy myself that I was not dreaming, or looking upon some fantastic
hallucination of the _mirage_.

"I stood for many minutes in a sort of trance, gazing down into the
lovely valley. I could observe no signs of human habitation. No smoke
rose over the trees, and no noises issued forth, except the voices of
Nature, uttered in the songs of birds and the hum of falling waters. It
seemed as though man had never desecrated this isolated paradise by his
presence and passions.

"I say I stood for many minutes gazing and listening. I could have
remained for hours; but the sinking sun admonished me to hasten