Edward Cary 



a uniform luminous medium toned 

 without obscuring the field of vision. 

 That fearful sense of wreck and deso- 

 lation, of a world crushed into frag- 

 ments, of the ice chisel which, unseen, 

 has wrought this strange mountain 

 sculpture, all the sensations of power 

 and tragedy I have invariably felt be- 

 fore on high peaks were totally forgot- 

 ten. Now it was like an opal world, 

 submerged in a sea of dreamy light, 

 down through whose motionless, 

 transparent depths I became con- 

 scious of sunken ranges, great hollows 

 of undiscernible depth, reefs of pearly 

 granite, as clear and delicate as the 

 coral banks in a tropical ocean. It 

 was not like a haze in the lower world, 

 which veils away distance into a soft 

 vanishing perspective ; there was no 

 mist, no vagueness, no loss of form or 

 fading of outline — only a strange 

 harmonizing of earth and air. Shad- 

 ows were faint, yet defined, lights 

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