238 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



" Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, 



And whitens with eternal sleet ; 

 While Summer, in a vale of flowers, 

 Is sleeping rosy at his feet." 



The great encircling walls of rock and snow contrast 

 grandly with the soft beauty of the scene beneath. 

 The snows have a wonderful effect as we look up 

 to them through the leafy branches of the immense 

 clnindr, elm, and poplar trees. They flash gloriously 

 in the morning sunlight above the pink mist of the 

 valley-plain ; they have a rosy glow in the evening 

 sunlight; and when the sunlight has departed, but 

 ere darkness shrouds them, they gleam, afar off, with 

 a cold and spectral light, as if they belonged to a 

 region where man had never trod. The deep black 

 gorges in the mountains have a mysterious look. The 

 sun lights up some softer grassy ravine or green slope, 

 and then displays splintered rocks rising in the wildest 

 confusion. Often long lines of white clouds lie along 

 the line of mountain-summits, while at other times 

 every white peak and precipice - wall is distinctly 

 marked against the deep-blue sky. The valley-plain 

 is especially striking in clear mornings and evenings, 

 when it lies partly in golden sunlight, partly in the 

 shadow of its great hills. 



The green mosaic of the level land is intersected by 

 many streams, canals, and lakes, or beautiful reaches 

 of river which look like small lakes. The lakes have 

 floating islands composed of vegetation. Besides the 



