Page:Among the Himalayas.djvu/353

Rh horizon than Kanchen', being so much further away — about, 90 miles — whilst the latter is about 43 miles. Only the peak of Everest is visible. Its base is hid behind the shoulder of a great armchair-like snowy mountain, the "Peak No. XIII. " of the Survey (see p. 342). Scarcely less magnificent than this view up towards the snows was the view looking downwards to the plains. Some ten thousand feet below us, the rising mist and clouds formed a vast woolly white sea, whose tide of rolling bil- lows surged in amongst the mountains, of which the dark rugged ridges stood out against the fleecy foam, as bold capes and headlands and dark islets in this sea of curling clouds. And as we gazed, some of these fleecy clouds surged over us and crept slowly, like "sheep of the sky" as the Lepchas call them, upwards to the snowy pinnacles, on which they settle down in flocky masses, veiling the peaks against the staring mid-day sun. Towards evening, however, these clouds disappear, probably condensed into snow in the colder atmosphere, and then we get again clear views at sunset. The track to the next peak led along the undulating crest of the pine forest, through patches of rhododendrons blooming brightly amid the snow, past some juniper trees after a few miles ; and the ranges of the hills got more and more rugged and rocky, as we approached the everlasting snows. Amongst the patches of rhododendrons by the way I got two Monal pheasants and one blood pheasant; and I saw a wild pig, also tracks in the snow of deer, goat-antelope, and a bear.