I therefore resolved to ride on in advance of my party, leaving them to overcome the difficulties of the pass by constantly unloading the animals, while I would reconnoitre in front, as Ellyria was not far distant.

My wife and I accordingly rode on, accompanied only by one of the Latookas as a guide.

After turning a sharp angle of the mountain, leaving the cliff abruptly rising to the left from the narrow path, we descended a ravine worse than any place we had previously encountered, and were obliged to dismount in order to lead our horses up the steep rocks on the opposite side.

On arrival at the summit a lovely view burst upon us.

The valley of Ellyria was about four hundred feet below, at about a mile distant.
Beautiful mountains, some two or three thousand feet high, of gray granite, walled in the narrow vale, while the landscape of forest and plain was bounded at about fifty or sixty miles' distance to the east by the blue mountains of Latooka.