LIFE IN THE ALPS. 321 



clouds are very different in autumn from what they are 

 in early summer. The grandest effects oi our moun- 

 tains are, indeed, displayed when no tourist is here to 

 look at them. To us, who remain, this is not a disad- 

 vantage; for, like the poet's " rapture on a lonely shore," 

 there is rapture for the lover of Xature in the lonely 

 mountains, and " a radiance of wisdom in their pine 

 woods.'' I well remember, after the tourist season at 

 Xiagara Falls had ended, my deep delight in visiting 

 alone the weird region of the "Whirlpool." Your 

 countryman, Thoreau, did not love the wilds more than 

 I do. 



One striking feature invariably reveals itself here 

 at the end of September and the beginning of October. 

 From the terrace of our cottage we look down upon a 

 basin vast and grand, at the bottom of which stands 

 the town of Brieg. Over Brieg, the line of vision 

 carries us to the Simplon Pass, and the mountains right 

 and left of it. Xaters stands in a great gap of the 

 mountains, while meadows and pine-clad knolls stretch, 

 with great variety of contour, up to the higher Alpine 

 pastures. The basin has no regularly rounded rim, but 

 runs into irregular bays and estuaries, continuous with 

 the great valley of the Ehone. 



At the period referred to, valley, basin, bays, and 

 estuaries are frequently filled by a cloud, the upper sur- 

 face of which seems, at times, as level as the unruffled 

 surface of the ocean. A night or two ago I looked down 

 upon such a sea of cloud, as it gleamed in the light 

 of a brilliant moon. Above the shining sea rose the 

 solemn mountains, overarched by the star-gemmed sky. 

 Here your young imaginations must aid me, for my pen 

 fails to pursue any further the description of the scene. 



As I write, on a day subsequent to that already 

 mentioned, a firmament of undimmed azure shuts out 



