JRemetcs — Edicards' Untrodden Peaks and Valleys. 367 



green lake, streaked with violet shadows, and measuring about three- 

 quarters of a mile in length. Great mountains close it in on all 

 sides, and the rich woods of the lower hills slope down to the water's 

 edge. The clustered peaks, the eternal snows and glaciers of Monte 

 Cristallo ; the towering summit of the Piz Popena ; and the extraor- 

 dinary towers of the Drei Zinnen come one after the other into view. 

 As for the Drei Zinnen, they surpass in boldness and weirdness all 

 the Dolomites of the Ampezzo. Seen through an opening between 

 two wooded hills, they rise abruptly from behind the intervening 

 plateau of Monte Eiano, as if thrust up from the centre of the earth 

 like a pair of tusks. No mere description can convey to even the 

 most apprehensive reader any correct impression of their outline, 

 their look of intense energy, of upwardness, of bristling irresistible 

 force. Two barren isolated obelisks of pale, sulphurous, orange-streaked, 

 limestone, all shivered into keen scimitar blades and shark-like teeth 

 towards the summit, they almost defy the pencil and quite defy the 

 pen. For the annexed illustration, however, so far as mere truthful- 

 ness of actual form goes, the writer can vouch, having sketched it 

 very carefully from the best point along the borders of the lake." 



The author, describing the Sasso di Eonch (Plate XIII.), says : — 



" Arriving at the top of the Col, we came suddenly upon a most 

 unexpected and fantastic scene — a scene as of a mountain in ruins. 

 For not only is the whole appearance of the Sasso changed in the 

 strangest way by being seen in pi'ofile, but, behind the ridge on 

 which Sasso stands, there is revealed a vast circular amphitheatre, 

 like the crater of an extinct volcano, strewn with rent crags, preci- 

 pices riven from top to bottom, and enormous fragments of rock, 

 many of which are at least as big as the clock-tower at Westminster. 

 All these are piled one upon another in the wildest confusion ; all 

 are prostrate, save one gigantic needle, which stands upright in 

 the midst of the circle, like an iceberg turned to stone. Mean- 

 while here, on the ridge, apart and alone, like a solitary remnant 

 of an outer battlement left standing beside a razed fortress, rises 

 to a height of at least 250 feet above the grass at its base, the Sasso 

 di Eonch. Seen thus in profile, it is difficult to believe that it is the 

 same Sasso di Eonch which one has been looking at from below. It 

 looks like a mere aiguille, or spire, disproportionately slender for its 

 height, and curved at the top, as if just ready to pitch over. Some 

 one has compared the Matterhorn to the head and neck of a war- 

 horse rearing up behind the valley of Zermatt ; so might the Sasso 

 di Eonch from this point be compared to the head and neck of a 

 giraffe. Standing upon its knife-edge of ridge — all precipice below, 

 all sky above, the horizon one long sweep of jagged peaks — it makes 

 as wild and weird a subject as ever I sat down to sketch before or since." 



The Aiguilles of the Schlern (p. 380) form part of a vast panorama 

 of peaks, including the Marmolata and Tofana, and many a famous 

 peak besides. Its three nearest neighbours, the Lang Kofel, Piatt 

 Kogel, and Schlem, are alone visible ; the rest are wrapt in clouds to- 

 day, only the Sella and Guerdenazza Massives stand free from vapour. 



"The heightof the Schlern," says Mr. Ball in his Guide to the Eastern 



