earthy half still here abiding; but our spirits flying whence they came.

In good time, we gained the thither side of great Kolumbo of the South;
and sailing on, long waited for the day; and wondered at the darkness.

"What steadfast clouds!" cried Yoomy, "yonder! far aloft: that ridge,
with many points; it fades below, but shows a faint white crest."

"Not clouds, but mountains," said Babbalanja, "the vast spine, that
traverses Kolumbo; spurring off in ribs, that nestle loamy valleys,
veined with silver streams, and silver ores."

It was a long, embattled line of pinnacles. And high posted in the
East, those thousand bucklered peaks stood forth, and breasted back
the Dawn. Before their purple bastions bold, Aurora long arrayed her
spears, and clashed her golden shells. The summons dies away. But now,
her lancers charge the steep, and gain its crest a-glow;--their
glittering spears and blazoned shields triumphant in the morn.

But ere that sight, we glided on for hours in twilight; when, on those
mountains' farther side, the hunters must have been abroad, morning-
glories all astir.



CHAPTER LXII
They Encounter Gold-Hunters


Now, northward coasting along Kolumbo's Western shore, whence came the