30 THE MOUNTAINS 



but this I have never seen." Neither have 

 I, exactly, for the cumulus was not pres- 

 ent ; but what I did see was the queenliest 

 of all the Swiss mountains breaking 

 through a huge mass of mist. And this 

 mass of mist was not merely huge, it was 

 extremely beautiful as well — in its own 

 fashion, it was as beautiful as any cumu- 

 lus cloud could possibly be. Beginning 

 at the edge of the lake itself, the lower 

 part of the mass, more than half of it, was 

 grayish blue with diagonal, ragged bands 

 of mottled green. This lower part, this 

 mist-base, if I may so consider it, ex- 

 tended upward narrowly, and, with a 

 serrated border, was joined to a pearl- 

 gray mass, which seemed to hold lurking 

 shadows. Out of this pearly-gray mass 

 there emerged, slowly and weirdly, the 

 pure white summit of the Jungfrau. 



In some secret play of nature's magic 

 this slow and silent emergence of the peak 

 from the mass of clinging mist seemed to 

 accentuate the upthrust, and also dramat- 



