200 MOUNTAIN CHANGES. 



and its cataracts, past the sands, past lonely Black 

 Combe, to the broad sea. When we were on Jpsk 

 Hause, the spectacle of these three lines 

 of landscape was remarkable. Towards 

 Keswick, the atmosphere was thick, just to the 

 degree that gave a visionary character to the long 

 perspective. The lake of Derwent Water was 

 hardly distinguishable from its shores, so that the 

 wooded islands and the town of Keswick lay as if 

 in air, still and unsubstantial. In the direction of 

 Eskdale, all was bright and glittering ; while from 

 Langdale and the head of Borrowdale the white 

 mists came tumbling out towards us, as if to stifle 

 us ; and nothing could be seen, except at intervals, 

 when a whiff of wind disclosed long sweeps of the 

 sides of the valleys, and stretches of the streams 

 and fields below. It is these changes that give 

 a singular charm to this mountain district. The 

 residents of the valleys, in their occasional ascents 

 to these heights, never see the scene twice alike, — 

 the great landmarks themselves being scarcely 

 recognisable but by certain incidents of their forms. 



