308 LIFE IN THE ALPS. 



wonderful thrilling of these Italian thunder-storms, be- 

 yond the great mountain range at the farther side of 

 the valley of the Rhone. 



At night it is one of the grandest of spectacles. 

 Flash rapidly follows flash, while at times the light 

 bursts simultaneously from different parts of the 

 heavens, every cloud and mountain-top appearing then 

 ' white-listed through the gloom.' At night the eye is 

 far more sensitive than it is by day, the more vivid 

 lightning thrills being then quite dazzling. Mean- 

 while, no sound is heard ; and an observer might be 

 disposed to conclude that the lightning was without 

 thunder — Blitz ohne Donner, as the Germans say. 

 Among the southern mountains, however, where the 

 flashes occur, there is one, called the Monte Generoso, 

 on which stands a hotel in telegraphic communication 

 with the lower world. Thither I have telegraphed on 

 various occasions ; and invariably, when the lightning 

 was thrilling silently in the manner just described, I 

 have been informed that a terrific thunderstorm was 

 raging over Northern Italy. 1 From our position here 

 the peals were too far away to be heard. 



The region where we dwell was chosen by Mrs. 

 Tyndall and myself on account of its surpassing beauty 

 and grandeur. I first made its acquaintance twenty- 

 nine years ago, having previously become familiar with 

 Mont Blanc and its glaciers, and with other glaciers, 

 both in Switzerland and the Tyrol. It is in the Roman 

 Catholic canton of Valais, which, notwithstanding the 

 success of the Reformation in adjoining cantons, has, up 

 to the present day, maintained its ancient religion. 



1 These messages once caused the worthy proprietor of the 

 Monte Generoso Hotel to remark that he knew Englishmen to be in- 

 terested in the weather; but that a gentleman at the Bel Alp 

 seemed positively crazy on the subject. 



