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the base of the Brocl<en, rendered more dismal on the present occa- 

 sion by the heavy, wet mist in which they were enshrouded. We 

 now followed a straggling footpath, winding for miles through these 

 pine-woods, — through rugged ravines, and over gigantic boulders, 

 strewed here and there in the wildest confusion : now ascending a 

 new shoulder of the Great or Little Brocken ; now descending the 

 slopes of another gorge, or ravine, the dense mist preventing our see- 

 ing three feet before us, and effectually soaking our habiliments, and 

 damping our skins, if not our spirits. Still, we pushed on, perse- 

 veringly and silently, through wood and brake, over rock and moor, 

 amid the most splendid scenes of desolation (if I may use such an 

 expression), vividly conjuring up before fancy's eye, as we trod this 

 classic ground, the demon scenes of Goethe's ' Faust.' About half- 

 past 7, or 8, p.m., when nearly quite dark, we reached the Brocken- 

 haus, where we were received, in a measure, as ' heroes of a night,' 

 by a parcel of boorish waiters, and a host of yelping curs." The 

 author made a few remarks on the Brocken climate, the circumstances 

 influencing it, and its effects on the vegetation both of the mountains 

 and the plains, noticing in particular the intense cold experienced on 

 the summit, even in mid summer. " It is interesting to find, at an 

 elevation comparatively so insignificant, a miniature glacier, in a 

 deep, shady fissure called the ' Schneeloch,' which lies about 400 

 feet below the summit, looks to the North-east, and is therefore pro- 

 tected from the direct solar rays, and the warm south winds. The 

 mass of ice or snow itself is some 500 feet long and 16 broad, 

 (according to Brederlow). In its vicinity, we have a miniature repre- 

 sentation of all seasons and climates, illustrating what we meet with, 

 on the large scale, when we ascend the Alps, Andes, or Himalayas, 

 from the plains towards the snow-line : on and immediately around 

 the glacier, there is intense cold, with a scanty cryptogamic vegeta- 

 tion ; but, gradually, as we recede, we feel the air becoming warmer 

 and more genial, and the vegetation mounting from the lichen and 

 moss, grass and fern, to the Vaccinium and heath, evergreen bush and 

 brushwood, blooming flower and ripening fruit." Dr. Lindsay made 

 allusion to some of the more important meteorological phenomena 

 observed on the Brocken, and especially to the so-called " spectre," a 

 kind of " Fata Morgana," which is " merely the magnified shadow of 

 an observer, projected upon a perpendicular wall of dense mist oppo- 

 site him. The circumstances essential to the production of the phe- 

 nomenon are, that there be in front of an observer a vertical mass of 

 dense mist, rising from a valley, and behind him, and on the same 



