No. XXI.
VIEW BETWEEN NATAN AND TAKA-CA-MUNDA.
On proceeding from Natan towards Serinagur, the road still continues to ascend, and from a point of great elevation this view was taken. The eye is here on a level with the tops of most of the surrounding mountains; the forms of which are more pointed and irregular than those passed before, and resemble the tumultuous agitation of the ocean, roused by a tempest. The general aspect of the whole is dreary and vast; vegetation is scanty; the scattered trees that here and there occur, seem to be embellishments misplaced and inappropriate; although, if trees are admissible, it could certainly be no other than misshapen blights like these.
But the circumstance which, from this point of view, chiefly raises our astonishment is, the appearance of a prodigious range of still more distant mountains, proudly rising above all that we have hitherto considered as most grand and magnificent, and which, clothed in a robe of everlasting snow, seem by their etherial hue to belong to a region elevated into the clouds, and partaking of their nature; having nothing in common with terrestrial forms. It would be in vain to attempt, by any description, to convey an idea of these sublime effects, which perhaps even the finest art can but faintly imitate. These mountains are supposed to be a branch of the Emodus, or Imaus, of the ancients; and, so great is their height, they are sometimes seen in the province of Bahar, and even in Bengal.
View between Natan and Taka-ca-munda.