CHAP. XVI 



AN ICE GROTTO 211 



and wanted to leave school to obtain situations 

 in the Museum. He used to astonish the parents 

 greatly by recommending them to send them 

 back to school to study Greek and Latin, after 

 which they might be qualified to pass on later to 

 the study of natural history. He spent August 

 with his family in Switzerland, staying chiefly in 

 the higher and lonelier parts, especially at the 

 little Riederalp hotel, between the Eggischorn and 

 the Bel Alp, exploring the magnificent Aletsch 

 glacier. Nature had formed an ice grotto that 

 summer on the glacier, which they frequently 

 visited, and which was described in the words of their 

 sixteen -year-old boy Stanley, who wrote home : — 



We have seen the wonderful natural grotto, the most utterly 

 and inexpressibly lovely and delicately beautiful yet awe-inspir- 

 ing spectacle that I have ever seen. The blues and greens of 

 the transparent ice, the pink light from the outer air falling on 

 the waterfall, and the purple dimness in the spray and inner 

 recesses of the vast cavern, combined with the majestic roar of 

 the great cataract tumbling wildly into the abyss beneath, and 

 the fantastic pillars sculptured by Nature's hand upon the ice, 

 produces a scene the very ideal of beauty. 



He was President of the British Association in 

 September, staying with Lord Armstrong during 

 the meeting, which was held at Newcastle. The 

 substance of his presidential address has been dealt 

 with in the chapter on " Anthropology." He was 

 made a D.C.L. of Durham University, and then, 

 after a series of visits, including one to the Duke of 

 Northumberland at Alnwick Castle and another to 



