1828.] Mine Host’s Second Story. 239 
little space left for a minute by two disjoined sheets of vapour, which 
instantly afterwards reunited and darkened as before. But it was with 
something like certainty that we observed, slowly and faintly ascending 
from the eastern horizon, a veiled, but cheerful light—a distinguishable 
brightness, that stole on the overspread darkness like a smile. Sweetly 
that point of brilliancy enlarged into size, and became a sheet of light, con- 
tending with the black curtain that withdrew slowly at its approach. The 
shades of night still were hanging on the confused outline of the moun- 
tain, when this forerunner of the morning cheered us on our way. But 
_no rays of the lingering sun aided us as yet ; when one of my companions 
suddenly stopt short in his track, and with rivetted eyes pointed to an 
object just beneath him.—Blessed Virgin! forgive an old man for this 
weakness.” 
A tear stood in his dim eye, and an agueish chill seemed to run through 
his frame. He sank on his chair in a state of temporary convulsion, 
which left him tremulous and pale, scarcely to complete the tale which 
he had voluntarily begun. 
« Sir,” he proceeded, “ your kind wishes to curtail this sorrow- 
ful narrative are unnecessary for my peace. Were I to discontinue it at 
present, I might be haunted for many a day with that image which has 
now so forcibly appalled me. It will be lost sight of in the train of the 
story, which I shall have a sad _ satisfaction in completing—As I said 
before, one of our party abruptly stopped towards the dawn of day, 
and by his manner, not by his words, collected us in an instant at the 
same spot. There—oh! horrible sight !—there reposed, like a statue of 
snow, a figure that we had little difficulty in recognizing as one of the 
lost Englishmen. ‘We could trace the outline of a human form, and, by 
clearing away some of the superficial snow, we distinguished the pos- 
ture and even features of the frozen man. He sate upright on a low 
mound, his arms crossed upon his breast, his head fallen forward, and 
his whole appearance that of a wearied traveller, who, having rested 
himself on his way, was overtaken as he rested by a slumber that proved 
eternal. Stiff and hard, his limbs were not to be released from that his 
last posture on earth ;—a living attitude that sculptors might imitate in 
stone, but which could never again start up with the. energy, and buoy- 
ancy, and strength of vigorous life. _We had not well familiarized our- 
selves with this sad spectacle, when a shout from another detachment 
announced the discovery of two more sufferers, who had fallen into one 
of the numerous ravines, and were imbedded in a shroud of sepulchral 
snow. Whether their death had been more gradual or more speedy 
than that of their comrade, it were vain to inquire. They were found 
close together, the rigid hand of one tightly grasped in the palm of his 
fellow-victim, and apparently the twin partners of the same final misfortune 
—whirled away in one torrent, and buried under the same sheet of snow. 
—But the catalogue of these spectacles was as yet incomplete. The 
increasing light marked out clearly to us the several less-frequented 
routes to the guard-house ; and we determined, before the heat of sun- 
shine had melted any part of the outer ice, to survey, as rapidly and well 
as possible, the intervening space of ground. 
_ “ You may know, Sir, that the point on which this building is placed 
is calculated as being 3,700 feet above the level of the sea. Hence, for 
the winter season it is generally surrounded by an enclosure of snow, 
which extends for a considerable distance down the crest of the moun- 
