FAR AND NEAR 



the hills, and had run down and dripped oflF the rock 

 eaves and been caught upon every shelf and projec- 

 tion. The color was deepest in all the wrinkles and 

 folds of the slopes and in the valley bottoms. At one 

 point we looked into a deep, smooth valley or trough 

 opening upon the sea, its shore-line a complete half- 

 circle. Its bottom was nearly at the water level, and 

 was as fresh and vivid as a lawn in spring. Some one 

 suggested that it looked like a huge dry dock, if dry 

 docks are ever carpeted with grass. The effect was 

 extremely strange and beautiful. The clouds rested 

 low across the hills, and formed a dense canopy over 

 the vast verdant cradle ; under this canopy we 

 looked along a soft green Adsta for miles back into 

 the hills, where patches of snow were visible. At 

 another point a similar trough or cradle had been 

 carved down to within a hundred or more feet of the 

 sea, and upon its rocky face hung a beautiful water- 

 fall. Then followed other lesser valleys that did 

 not show the same glacial cross-section ; they were 

 V-shaped instead of U-shaped, each marked by a 

 waterfall into the sea. There were three of these in 

 succession cutting the rocky sea front into pyramidal 

 forms. Often the talus at the foot of the cliffs was 

 touched by the same magic green. Then opened 

 up larger valleys, into which we looked under an up- 

 rolled drop-curtain of cloud. One of them, lighted up 

 by the sun, showed us an irregularly carved valley 

 landscape, suggesting endless possibilities of flocks 

 102 



