Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

couuiSK, 479
Yet I must still quote one passage from Pinto: though,
quoting- it from memory, I cannot vouch for its accuracy.
" Both the ships had been struggling with the storm,
through the darkness of the night; nothing could be
seen ; but on a sudden there arose a fearful cry, when,
in a moment, all was silent, and nothing was ever heard
again but the sound of the waves and the gale."
Never was any thing more deceptive than the first
sight of this valley. Simple in its form and disposition,
admirably proportioned in all its parts, and excluding*
other objects of comparison, it appeared about a mile in
length, and the lake seemed not to exceed a few hundred
yards. But when I looked at that solitary birch tree, a
mere speck in the void, when I saw a hundred torrents,
which, though they almost seemed within my reach, I
couU not hear, when I viewed the distant extremity,
dimly showing through the soft grey of the atmosphere,
and when, as I advanced, the ground, that seemed only
strewed with pebbles, was found covered with huge
masses of rock, far overtopping myself, I felt like an
insect amidst the gigantic scenery, and the whole mag-
tude of the place became at once sensible.
Still, the effect thus produced by this simplicity of
form, appeared almost inexplicable ; but it has, indeed,
been explained by Gulliver. When I contemplated the
valley only, every thing seemed very natural ; but I felt
diminished to an insignificance of dimension, less than that
of his own Lilliputians. But when again I was convinced
that I was myself, and no other, then the giant forms
grew around me, and every thing became vast and terri-
ble. I was glad afterwards to take my own boat's crew
with me for a perpetual scale, despatching them in a
string towards the further end of the lake. The further
end—before they had reached half way to the nearer
extremity, they were all invisible.