32 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and unearthly splendour burst upon me, that, spell- 

 bound and almost trembling with the emotion its 

 magnificence called forth with every sense and feel- 

 ing and thought absorbed by its brilliancy, I saw far 

 more than the realisation of the most gorgeous visions 

 that opium or hasheesh could evoke, accomplished. 

 At first, everything about us -above, around, below 

 the sky, the mountain, and the lower peaks 

 appeared one uniform creation of burnished gold, so 

 brightly dazzling that, now our veils were removed, 

 the eye could scarcely bear the splendour. As the 

 twilight gradually crept over the lower world the 

 glow became still more vivid ; and presently, as the 

 blue mist rose in the valleys, the tops of the higher 

 mountains looked like islands rising from a filmy 

 ocean an archipelago of gold. By degrees this 

 metallic lustre was softened into tints, first orange, 

 and then bright transparent crimson, along the hori- 

 zon, rising through the different hues with prismatic 

 regularity, until, immediately above us, the sky was 

 a deep pure blue, merging towards the east into 

 glowing violet The snow took its colour from these 

 changes ; and every portion on which the light fell 

 was soon tinged with pale carmine, of a shade similar 

 to that which snow at times assumes, from some im- 

 perfectly explained cause, at high elevations such, 

 indeed, as I had seen in early summer upon the 

 Furka and Faulhorn. These beautiful hues grew 

 brighter as the twilight below increased in depth j 



