THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 25 



come away, till the solid core of tlie rock was bared. 

 And may not those mysterious giants have had a 

 hand in carrying the stones across the lake? . . . 

 Eeally I am not altogether jesting. Think awhile 

 what agent could possibly have produced either 

 one, or both of these effects? 



There is but one ; and that, if you have been 

 an Alpine traveller — much more if you have been 

 a Chamois hunter — you have seen many a time 

 (whether you knew it or not) at the very same 

 work. 



Ice ? Yes ; ice ; Hrymir the frost-giant, and no 

 one else. And if you will look at the facts, you 

 will see how ice may have done it. Our friend 

 John Jones's report of plains and bogs and a lake 

 above makes it quite possible that in the " Ice age " 

 (Glacial Epoch, as the big-word-mongers call it) 

 there was above that cliff a great neve, or suowfield, 

 such as you have seen often in the Alps at the 

 head of each glacier. Over the face of this cliff 

 a glacier has crawled down from that neve, polishing 

 Vaq face of the rock in its descent : but the snow, 



