CHAP. VI MOUNTAINS 229 



what they are like. Fig. 20 represents the 

 glacier of the Bliimlis Alp, and the Plate 

 the Mer de Glace. 



They are often very beautiful. " Mount 

 Beerenberg," says Lord Dufferin, "in size, 

 colour, and effect far surpassed anything I 

 had anticipated. The glaciers were quite 

 an unexpected element of beauty. Imagine 

 a mighty river, of as great a volume as the 

 Thames, started down the side of a moun- 

 tain, bursting over every impediment, wliirled 

 into a thousand eddies, tumbling and rag- 

 ing on from ledge to ledge in quivering 

 cataracts of foam, then suddenly struck 

 rigid by a power so instantaneous in its 

 action that even the froth and fleeting 

 wreaths of spray have stiffened to the immu- 

 tability of sculpture. Unless you had seen 

 it, it would be almost impossible to conceive 

 the strangeness of the contrast between the 

 actual tranquillity of these silent crystal 

 rivers and the violent descending energy 

 impressed upon their exterior. You must 

 remember too all this is upon a scale of such 

 prodigious magnitude, that when we sue- 



