14 



MY FIRST VISIT TO THE ENGADINE. 



side of the valley ; at times we found our best plan was to 

 descend into the bed of the torrent, but occasionally, when a 

 main stream came close to the bank, this course was im- 

 practicable, and we then had to clamber over the rocks 

 along the bank as best w^e could. Colias PJiicomoiie, Par- 

 nassius Delius, Erehia GorgCf and various species of il/ie- 

 litceaj enlivened the scene, and nearly every boggy piece of 

 ground we had to cross was gay with the blue flowers of the 

 Gentian. Light clouds chequered the sky and occasionally 

 moderated the heat of the sun ; but the snowy peaks imme- 

 diately before us remained always clear and distinct, only 

 the fleeting shadows of clouds on their sides served to break 

 their otherwise uniform monotony — the last part of the ap- 

 proach we again descended into the bed of the stream and 

 thus by degrees came actually up to the glacier. It was 

 then past midday, and the hot sun baking upon the whole 

 surface of the glacier caused it to pour forth copious streams 

 from above, from below and at the sides. 



In purity of surface this glacier was no very great im- 

 provement upon the Morteratsch glacier, though the upper 

 portion of it, which we saw from our hotel, looked so much 

 whiter at a distance. From time to time the melting of the 

 glacier dislodged some of the stones on its surface, and one 

 such, about two feet square by one foot deep, having made 

 a slip of a few inches, led us to speculate w^iether if it lost 

 its balance altogether it might not come and fraternise with 

 a very similar stone on which we were sitting ; we therefore 

 retreated to a more convenient distance and devoured with 

 considerable appetite the provisions we had brought with us. 

 As a relic I brought home from the foot of this glacier a spe- 

 cimen of Perla microcephalaj which had got blown into the 

 stream. 



We had not proceeded far along the footpath on our return 

 before we descried Professor Hering on the opposite side of 



