_ CHAP, VI’, - . MOUNTAINS 299 
what they are like. Fig. 20 represents the 
glacier of the Bliimlis Alp, and the Plate 
the Mer de Glace. 
They are often very beaut: “ Mount 
Beerenberg,’ says Lord Dufferin, “in size, 
colour, and effect far surpassed anything | 
had anticipated. The glaciers were quite 
an unexpected element of beauty. Imagine 
a mighty river, of as great a volume as the 
Thames, started down the side of a moun- 
tain, bursting over every impediment, whirled 
into a thousand eddies, tumbling and rag- 
ing on from ledge to ledge in quivering 
cataracts of foam, then suddenly struck 
rigid by a power so instantaneous in its 
action. that even the froth and fleeting 
wreaths of spray have stiffened to the immu- 
tability of sculpture. Unless you had seen 
it, it would be almost impossible: to conceive 
the strangeness of the contrast between the 
actual tranquillity of these silent crystal 
rivers and the violent descending energy 
impressed upon their exterior. You must 
_ remember too all this is upon a scale of such 
prodigious magnitude, that when we suc- 
