22 SPITSBERGEN chap, ii 



often to press her viands upon us with kind hospitality. A 

 moderated gaiety pervaded the company. 



Hunger being satisfied, we bade our friends adieu and 

 sallied forth through an undulating and fertile country. 

 Green fields decked the broken slopes. Approaching the 

 dip to the river's trough we saw over a wide area, diver- 

 sified by old moraines broken down by alluvial action, and 

 terraces deposited at the opening of gorges. On the summit 

 of a wooded knoll a roar of water saluted our ears, and we 

 looked down upon the crest of the upper Voss, relieved 

 against a sunlit cloud of water-dust flung into the air from 

 the foot of the fall. Following a track down the water 

 side we enjoyed the cascade from many points of view. 

 Few pictures and no photographs give the least idea of 

 the charm of any waterfall, for its glory is not in its form, 

 but in its weight and volume, which the motion and roar of 

 the water reveal. The river, that here tumbles over a 

 cliff, was this day brimful, submerging its green banks ; 

 the brown smooth slope of the torrent at the top of the 

 fall, hid within its depths volumes of air, swirled in by the 

 first rush. These came to the surface like bursting shells 

 a few yards down, and thenceforward the whole was a 

 mass of cream-white foam, visibly heavy and of mighty 

 volume. The setting sun shone broadly on the face of the 

 fall, but left in darkness the curving reach of the wide 

 river below. A path led through a wood, with open grassy 

 places, in one of which was a family — parents, aunts, 

 and children — playing kiss-in-the-ring, and looking like so 

 many fauns, for which we blessed them. The second fall 

 came into view round a corner, and the path led to a 

 restaurant-platform. This fall is one undivided shoot of 

 water, less impressive, we thought, than the upper cataract, 

 perhaps because we saw that first. Waterfalls seldom gain 

 on acquaintance — it is the first impression, the contrast of 



