WORKING THE ANIMAS 125 



of the Gothic, apparent everywhere, sobered us like 

 the distant chords of a great organ. 



One view in particular suggested, through the 

 magic of the surroundings and the softening atmos- 

 phere, the famous cathedral of Milan. The rock 

 walls rose mistily blue against the sky, delicate as 

 the work of fairies. Buttresses gleamed in the sun, 

 great arches shone as they shouldered the mass of 

 intricate ornamentation, of pinnacles and points, 

 that topped the whole. Then as we looked the sun 

 hid behind a cloud, the glistening, lacelike details 

 were blotted out in a wave of darkness and the form- 

 less face of mystery, sombrely impassive, stared us 

 into insignificance and awe. 



"We were glad, strange as it may seem, when the 

 day came for cruising. Several things accounted 

 for this. In the first place we had rested thor- 

 oughly and were feeling the need of hard work once 

 more. Then, too, conditions in camp were most un- 

 comfortable. We had descended to an altitude of 

 less than six thousand feet and for the first time dur- 

 ing the summer began to suffer from the heat. 



All day the sun burned down wickedly. No rain 

 came to cool the air. Even at night, which seemed 

 strangely unjust to us, it was warm and sultry and 

 we slept poorly. 



To make matters worse all the flies and yellow 

 jackets in the world seemed to have appointed our 

 camp a rendezvous. Our sun baked sleeping tents 

 looked now like hives, now like well filled fly traps. 



