The entire afternoon it continued snowing, and the mountain-tops
soon hid themselves and sulked away among the leaden mists. Our tent
was pitched among a low sort of scrub, the only apology for fire-wood
procurable, and here we soon had a fine carpet of fresh snow, which put
the unfortunate coolies, and the servants, and the three goats and the
four ducks, and, in fact, everybody but F. and myself, who now begin to
feel thoroughly AT HOME, to considerable discomfort and inconvenience.
About a hundred yards from us rises the central mountain of
consolidated old snow; while the monarchs of the place, whose
hospitality we have been enjoying, overtopped our diminutive little
worn canvas dwelling with proud and gloomy magnificence, or hid
themselves from us in their ermine mantles, with aristocratic
frigidity.[30] Before us, the path continues towards the clouds,
hemmed in, to all appearance, by a mighty glacier, which it would
seem impossible to avoid in our tomorrow's route. To-day we again
find the society of the little shrieking marmots, who seemed more than
over astonished at what could bring so strange and motley a group of
creatures to disturb the universal quiet of their solitude.
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