text:  The day was fine and bright and we started in high spirits the horsemen hardly able to conceal their exultation in their superiority over the walkers whilst they cantered over the plain from which our ascent commenced; this 4000 feet almost gradual in forty miles is not fatiguing; and thus although we found the path through a wood about three miles long very deep and the air oppressive we all arrived together without distress at the "half-way house " by 1 P