The barometer showed twenty-three thousand feet in altitude.
Magnificent was the grouping of the chaos of mountains! Everywhere were brilliant white summits.

There were no lakes, but glaciers descending ten thousand feet towards the base.

There was no herbage, only a few phanerogams on the limit of vegetable life.

Down on the lower flanks of the range were splendid forests of pines and cedars.
Here were none of the gigantic ferns and interminable parasites stretching from tree to tree as in the thickets of the jungle.

There were no animals--no wild horses, or yaks, or Tibetan bulls.
Occasionally a scared gazelle showed itself far down the slopes.
There were no birds, save a couple of those crows which can rise to the utmost limits of the respirable air.
The pass at last was traversed.