AVALANCHES AND LAND SLIPS. 175 



Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun 

 Clothe you with rainbows ? Who with living flowers 

 Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet 1 

 God ! Let the torrents, like a shout of nations, 

 Answer ! and let the ice-plains echo, God ! " 



On either side rose stupendous barriers of snow, 

 and interminable fields of ice, varied in places with 

 dark, frowning precipices; bleak scarped rocks, 

 and rugged overhanging cliffs, on which the snow 

 could not lie on account of their steepness. Down 

 every ravine, and gully, deep snow-beds, and blue 

 glaciers rolled, each transporting masses of rock, 

 and an accumulation of shingle and debris, that 

 formed moraine in some places several hundred 

 feet high. 



Avalanches, masses of snow, and landslips, were 

 continually falling on both sides with loud roaring 

 noises, like peals of thunder, or salvoes of artillery, 

 obliging us to keep in the centre of the glacier, so 

 as to be out of the way of the debris, and even 

 then we were scarcely safe, for on two occasions 

 huge boulders of fine-grained white granite, with 

 sharply-splintered edges, evidently just broken off, 

 flew across our path with a strange rumbling noise. 



