146 BEAUTY AND GRANDEUR OF ICEBERGS. 



deep. The restless waves resound through its broken 

 archways and thunder against its adaraantean walls. 

 Clouds, impenetrable as those which shielded the 

 graceful form of Arethusa, clothe it in the morning ; 

 under the bright blaze of the noonday sun it is ar- 

 mored in glittering silver ; it robes itself in the gor- 

 geous colors of evening ; and in the silent night the 

 heavenly orbs are mirrored in its glassy surface. 

 Drifting snows whirl over it in the winter, and the 

 sea-gulls swarm round it in the summer. The last 

 rays of departing day linger upon its lofty spires ; and 

 when the long darkness is past it catches the first 

 gleam of the returning light, and its gilded dome her- 

 aids the coming morn. The Elements combine to 

 render tribute to its matchless beauty. Its loud voice 

 is wafted to the shore, and the earth rolls it from crag 

 to crag among the echoing hills. The sun steals 

 through the veil of radiant fountains which flutter 

 over it in the summer winds, and the rainbow on its 

 pallid cheek betrays the warm kiss. The air crowns 

 it with wreaths of soft vapor, and the waters around 

 it take the hues of the emerald and the sapphire. In 

 fulfillment of its destiny it moves steadily onward in 

 its blue pathway, through the varying seasons and 

 under the changeful skies. ' Slowly, as in ages long 

 gone by it arose from the broad waters, so does it sink 

 back into them. It is indeed a noble symbol of the 

 Law, — a monument of Time's slow changes, more an- 

 cient than the Egyptian Pyramids or the obelisk of 

 Heliopolis. Its crystals were dew-drops and snow- 

 flakes long before the human race was born in Eden. 

 The glacier by which I had ascended to the mer de 

 glace furnishes a fine illustration of growth and move- 

 ment as I have described it. Coming down from the 



