PKEFACE. xiii 



a torrent between the glacier and the slope of the moun- 

 tain. In some places this river was more than sixty 

 yards wide, at others it was contracted to less than one- 

 fifth of this width. Broken cascades of great height were 

 formed here and there by successive ledges of ice, the 

 torrent leaping with indescribable fury from ledge to 

 ledge, and sending a smoke of spray into the air. At one 

 place the bottom of the torrent was deep soft sand, which, 

 after the water had passed, could be seen to have been 

 tortured into huge funnels by the whirling eddies over- 

 head. 



Soon after we reached the Bel Alp, on the occasion 

 just referred to, the front of the torrent appeared at the 

 opposite side of the valley carrying everything movable 

 before it, and immediately afterwards swept through the 

 hollow that we had traversed a little earlier in the 

 day. When at the end of the glacier I was struck by 

 the force and volume of the Massa, and the grandeur 

 of its vault, but I could not then account for the huge 

 blocks of ice which it incessantly carried down. Doubt- 

 less the eruption above had been partial before the grand 

 rush set in. The Bhone was considerably swollen, crops 

 were damaged or ruined, and the driver of the diligence 

 was sorely perplexed to find himself in three feet of 

 water, without any apparent reason, on the public high- 

 way. Two or three days subsequently I learned at the 



