5 1 2 Notes on Sport and Travel x 



mountains, or rather the tops of mountains, for we 

 were far above the general level of their crests. One 

 wide sea of rock and snow surged around us ; shore- 

 less, no bounding range, no sweet glimpse of broad 

 green valleys and glistening rivers in the distance, 

 no pretty villages nestling cosily under the pine 

 forest, — nothing but peak on peak, ridge on ridge ; 

 bright pinnacles and clusters of pinnacles shooting 

 up here and there far above the rest into the calm 

 blue sky ; deep grooves marking the course of 

 distant valleys, like tide-marks on the sea. But no 

 trace was there of man or beast, herb or tree ; the 

 very wind that whistled past us brought no sound 

 or scent from the valleys it had passed, but sounded 

 harsh and dry and dead. Vain, indeed, would be 

 the effort to convey the slightest idea of the solemn 

 grandeur of that scene ! Manfred ? Manfred gives 

 the finest and truest picture ever perhaps painted of 

 Swiss Alpine scenery, as seen looking towards the 

 mountains or from the cliffs bordering some rich 

 pastoral valley ; but we had passed all that long 

 ago ; we were in the very heart of the range. Alp 

 was still piled on Alp, but we had reached the 

 summit of the pile. The only valleys we saw were 

 fearful scars in the mountain flank, half filled with 

 eternal snow and the crumbling skeletons of dead 

 Alps. No sound, no herdsman's jodlc, no cow-bell's 

 tinkle ever reached to half-way up our rocky perch ; 

 we were far above the vulture and the chamois. 

 We were alone with the rock and snow and sky. 



