44 HARMONIES. 



as glass. Here a vast, uncouth column of black basalt 

 rears its fused cylinders from the midst of a narrow 

 ravine ; and here a vast precipice appears of white marble, 

 as imve as that of Paros. Rocks of all hues, bright red, 

 purple, yellow, green ; of all combinations of colours, 

 white with purple spots, white with blue veins, brown 

 with pale green streaks, pale crimson with veins of black 

 and yellow, are scattered about in unheeded confusion ; 

 while, above all, the rich and splendid jasper rises in 

 enormous masses, as if it were the vilest rock, yet glitter- 

 ing in gorgeous beauty, — mountains of gems. Here is 

 one of a dark sea-green, with cream-coloured veins ; there 

 a mass of deep violet ; and here a ribbon-stripe, marked 

 irregularly with alternate bands of red, brown, and green ; 

 and yonder is a huge heap of shattered blocks of the 

 richest plum-purple, transmitting the light in sparkling 

 lustre through their translucent substance, as they lie 

 where they have been tumbled down from their beds by 

 the force of the torrent, and presenting the most agree- 

 able contrasts between their own deep, rich, imperial hue, 

 and that of the yellow-green moss that springs in cushion- 

 like tufts from their angles and crevices. 

 r You pursue the little mountain stream, through the 

 thick mass of tangled cedars and fallen rocks, slippery 

 and treacherous to the unwary foot, wading from stone 

 to stone through many a narrow gorge, till there bursts 

 before you a beautiful cascade, that comes bounding down 

 in three leaps from a height of sixty feet. The water is 

 white and sparkling as it plmiges over the purple preci- 



