BOOK III 



THE MOUNTAINS — CATACLYSMS AND 

 UPHEAVALS OF THE GLOBE. 



It is ill the midst of lofty mountains that Nature de- 

 velops her most magnificent scenes. Their winding-sheets 

 of eternal snow, their diadems of ice, and their burning 

 volcanoes, by turns strike and astonish the traveller. " It 

 seems," says Ilousseau, "as if, when we rise above the 

 dwellings of men, we left behind all low and earth-born 

 sentiments, and that in proportion as we approached the 

 ethereal regions, the soul contracted something of their 

 unchangeable purity ! " 



Here we are j^enetrated by a sense of the divine majesty 

 and liuman weakness. Before their colossal masses, their 

 frightful and sombi'e clefts, we can say with the old Ger- 

 man miner, "Man is only an atom on the mountain, though 

 he is a giant in the mine." 



The aspect of the sea is monotonous compared to that 

 of the froAvning crests of the globe; if it have its gales and 

 tempests, they have their hurricanes and avalanches. 

 Mountains are also of importance in the harmony of the 

 globe. These grand chains, the summits of which pierce 

 the lofty regions of the atmosj^here, seem, says De Saussm-e, 



