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94 masses the torrent roared, as it rolled along its foaming flood with impetuous force. They reached the brow of the dangerous eminence, when the drizzling rain, the uncultivated wild, the universal dreariness of the scene, was far from compensating for the difficulties they had surmounted. Nature, in her extreme of barrenness, as found in this unfrequented spot, added to a condensed and hazy atmosphere, was well adapted to impress the mind not with sadness only, but with gloom.

After a long and uninterrupted interval of sameness, light clouds were seen floating in the west, the mists by degrees dispersed, and, soon after, the sun, in all its beautiful effulgence, beamed upon the adjacent country. Having attained the summit of a second but less laborious ascent, how great was the delight of our little party, equalled only by the amazement which each could not fail to express, when they beheld a scene perfect in beauty—the most luxuriant effects of cultivation, blended with the wildest scenery, which, as it burst upon the eye, at once afforded an ample recompense for the tediousness of the past! The road they skirted was overshadowed by an impending cliff, clothed with a rich and verdant foliage; and, not far distant, a waterfall dashed its foaming sprays into the dark, rocky channel of the extensive river