CLIMBING MONTE MORELLO 



on top of the other, and the whole tilted toward the northwest at a gentle 

 angle ; up here I can see that the strata have been squeezed about, twisted 

 and overturned, until even the eye practised in dissecting such knots can 

 hardly discern how the whole is put together. My brethren of the hammer 

 are given to the notion that they can often make out the structure of a 

 mountain, where the rocks are well exposed, without setting foot upon it; 

 but they will be easily deceived, for it happens that in the mountain preci- 

 pices the rocks at certain angles will mark themselves by strong lines on the 

 hillsides, while those of other degrees of slope will be quite masked in their 

 own d6bris. Here was what seemed a mile or two away a perfectly simple 

 anatomy, turned into a problem that would require weeks to unravel when 

 seen with a closer eye. 



As I rose near the summit of the mountain the strong gale, from which I 

 had been in a measure protected during the earlier stages of the ascent, began 

 to baffle me. The traces of snow were still on the rocks, and the air from 

 over the higher mountains was very cold and stifling from the force with 

 which it beat against my face. When I came within a hundred feet of the 

 top I could no longer stand against it, but had to grimp along on all fours, 

 dragging my satchel and plaid as I went. It required some energy to get 

 into a state for observation, for the wind was strong enough to blow pebbles 

 of a dangerous size up over the ledge of the mountain. The scene was noble 

 enough to overcome the discomfort. All around lay the mountains of Tuscany. 

 In the west lay the fantastic peaks of Carrara, the most thoroughly indi- 

 vidualized mountains in all Europe ; they do not look like mountains, but are 

 shaped rather like the curious frost work that forms on the moist soil of a 

 morning in early winter ; they do not belong to any of the recognized orders 

 of mountain architecture which are well determined. 



The most beautiful effect is given by the deep gorges that scar all these 

 hills; the sun, now oblique and near its setting, filled them with purplish- 

 black shadows, while all that lay in the sun was of a vivid reddish gray that 

 belongs to the limestone rocks. This gamut of color is one I have never seen 

 in any other land, and I suppose to its strangeness must be attributed the 

 unearthliness of the effect. The lonely, sharp peak, the desolate, strangely 

 colored landscape, the surging wind that seemed trying to sweep me off 

 into space, all tended to raise that deep sense of mystery and fear that ever 

 underlies our minds. The commonplace sense of our daily life usually pro- 

 tects us from this strangest and most terrible of all emotions, so that many 

 know it only in dreams. Sometimes, by night on the picket line, in the face 

 of an active enemy, when the darkness suddenly seemed to become all alive, 

 or when exploring alone in some newly opened cavern, I have felt this sense 

 of the terrible in the surrounding world ; but though I have climbed many 



