text:  It was now the end of October; winter in all its severity had already set in on those lofty solitudes; the mountain sides silent and melancholy even at the height of summer when enamelled with flowers and dotted with flocks presented then an unbroken sheet of snow; the blue lakes which are interspersed over the level valley at their feet were frozen over and undistinguishable from the rest of the dreary expanse and a boundless mass of snowy peaks arose on all sides presenting apparently an impassable barrier to their further progress