At last, like all their predecessors, they began
to get entangled in the intricate net-work of deep gullies that rendered
straightforward travelling so difficult in this region. Like them, they
commenced to think advance impossible, and to speak of turning back.
Passages had to be cut through the thick brushwood for their pack horses,
circuitous roads found around steeps too precipitous to scale, and the
purpose of the journey seemed hopelessly lost. They had succeeded in
crossing the first outwork of the mountains, but the Main Range had yet
to be won. At length they fortunately hit upon a dividing spur, leading
to the westward, and this they perseveringly followed, until they were
rewarded by reaching the summit, and seeing below them a comparatively
open valley, and beyond, chains of hills, broken it is true, but only
trifling compared to what they had passed over. It was a work of time and
much labour to gain access to this valley. The mountain they had ascended
was steep and rugged, and great care had to be exercised in descending.
But fatigue was not much thought of with their hopes so happily
fulfilled.
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