mit beyond the centre of gravit r, and it pitched headlong down 
the broken plane of the crevice, whic h was followed by an active 
scene of wild and terrific confusion. Avalanche succeeded ava- 
lanche of enormous size, as the fall offipe detached others larger 
than itself. 
At first their motion was slow and geaer, as they merely slid 
from their resting places, till arrested by another mass, when they 
came tumbling, rolling, and boun a down as their velocity in- 
creased, till no barrier could check their impetuous course. 
At their onset, each could be e distinetly seen, and marked amid 
the rest, till by their incr velocity, according to the obsta- as 
cles they encountered as they rolled onward in : their descent, 
bounding from crag to crag with resistless force, they 
rend and shiver themselves and opposing» obstacles into im 
mense masses. They seemed to gain additional power from 
each opposing barrier, till opposer and opposed, rent into ten — 
thousand ‘fragments, rushed headlong, tearing, crashing, thu 
dering down, as if possessing within themselves the elements 
of life; then deviating from side to side, as any solid angular il- 
elination turned them from their forward course, till ground 
broken into myriads of pieces, their forms became too indistinct 
to be any longer discerned. They then assumed the confused 
appearance of a circumscribed storm of thick hail and snow, 
driven madly onward by a furious tempest, until it reached its 
final resting place, far down in the rough and jagged bosom of 
the glacier, of which it now forms a part, to be carried slowly 
yet surely to the valley, and there being liquefied by the rays of 
a summer sun, to aid in swelling the torrent of the Arve. ‘This 
mountain river, as if exulting in being loosed from its icy bondage, 
then leaps joyously along, till it mingles its waters with the deep 
blue sea—although mingled, yet it is not lost, for it may agaim 
assume another and a lighter form, as in vapor it rises from the 
tranquil bosom of the Mediterranean, a part to be wafted by the 
soft zephyrs of Italy to irrigate her fertile plains, while the rest 
may be again transported to clothe anew the eee summit of 
some snow-capped Alp. 
Those travellers who from the valley of gibiesnix have seen 
these masses of ice falling from the summit of Mont Blanc, 2 — 
the Grand Plateau, in consequence of their distancé and great — 
height, can form no idea of their size. These blocks of ite _ 
