FAR AND NEAR 



the hills, antl had run down and dripped off the rock 

 eaves and been caught upon every shelf and projec- 

 tion. The color was deepest in all the wrinkles and 

 folds of the slopes and in the valley bottoms. At one 

 point we looked into a deep, smooth valley or trough 

 opening upon the sea, its shore-line a complete half- 

 circle. Its bottom was nearly at the water level, and 

 was as fresh and vivid as a lawn in spring. Some one 

 suggested that it looked like a huge dry dock, if dry 

 docks are ever carpeted with grass. The effect was 

 extremely strange and beautiful. The clouds rested 

 low across the hills, and formed a dense canopy over 

 the vast verdant cradle ; under this canopy we 

 looked along a soft green vista for miles back into 

 the hills, wdiere patches of snow were visible. At 

 another point a similar trough or cradle had been 

 carved down to w^ithin a hundred or more feet of the 

 sea, and upon its rocky face hung a beautiful water- 

 fall. Then followed other lesser valleys that did 

 not show the same glacial cross-section ; they were 

 V-shaped instead of U-shaped, each marked by a 

 waterfall into the sea. There were three of these in 

 succession cutting the rocky sea front into pyramidal 

 forms. Often the talus at the foot of the cliffs w^as 

 touched by the same magic green. Then opened 

 up larger valleys, into v/hicli Ave looked under an up- 

 rolled drop-curtain of cloud. One of them, lighted up 

 by the sun, showed us an irregularly carved valley 

 landscape, suggesting endless possil)ilities of flocks 



10^ 



