WORKING THE ANIMAS 125 
of the Gothic, apparent everywhere, sobered us like 
the distant chords of a great organ. 
One view in particular suggested, through the 
magic of the surroundings and the softening atmos- 
phere, the famous cathedral of Milan. The rock 
walls rose mistily blue against the sky, delicate as 
the work of fairies. Buttresses gleamed in the sun, 
great arches shone as they shouldered the mass of 
intricate ornamentation, of pinnacles and points, 
that topped the whole. Then as we looked the sun 
hid behind a cloud, the glistening, lacelike details 
were blotted out in a wave of darkness and the form- 
less face of mystery, sombrely impassive, stared us 
into insignificance and awe. 
We were glad, strange as it may seem, when the 
day came for cruising. Several things accounted 
for this. In the first place we had rested thor- 
oughly and were feeling the need of hard work once 
more. Then, too, conditions in camp were most un- 
comfortable. We had descended to an altitude of 
less than six thousand feet and for the first time dur- 
ing the summer began to suffer from the heat. 
All day the sun burned down wickedly. No rain 
came to cool the air. Even at night, which seemed 
strangely unjust to us, it was warm and sultry and 
we slept poorly. + 
To make matters worse all the flies and yellow 
jackets in the world seemed to have appointed our 
camp a rendezvous. Our sun baked sleeping tents 
looked now like hives, now like well filled fly traps. 
