XIV 



The Valley of Eternal Sleep 



"There was no motion in the dumb dead air." 



Tennyson. 



IT lies far away among the mountains that 

 lonely valley. 

 A patch of wood hides the entrance to it 

 a dim, dark fir wood, where huge moss-covered 

 boulders lie piled one upon another between the 

 great trees. Grey trailing lichen, like an old man's 

 beard, hangs from the branches lichen that spreads 

 gradually upwards, until the whole tree is enveloped 

 in its soft clinging grasp. In its grasp, but dead ; 

 for where it clings it kills ! 



No birds are in that wood, no living creature ; 

 only silence lurks there. 



And from the silent wood we entered the silent 

 valley. 



It was the afternoon of a fine, clear day ; the 

 ground was hard and white with frost, and the 

 Zillergrund behind us was bathed in the glow of 

 the setting sun. 



213 



