CLOUDS AND RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS. 53 



134. We quit the ice at a place called the Couvercle, 

 and wind round this promontory, ascending all the 

 time. We squeeze ourselves through the Egralets, a 

 kind of natural staircase in the rock, and soon afterwards 

 obtain a full view of the ice-fail, the origin of which 

 we wish to find. The ice upon the fall is much broken; 

 we have pinnacles and towers, some erect, some lean- 

 ing, and some, if we are fortuna ce, falling like those 

 upon the Glacier des Bois ; and we have chasms from 

 which issues a delicate blue light. With the ice-fall to 

 our right we continue to ascend, until at length we 

 command a view of a huge glacier basin, almost level, 

 and on the middle of which stands a solitary island, 

 entirely surrounded by ice. We stand at the edge of 

 the Glacier du Talefre, and connect it with the ice-fall 

 we have passed. The glacier is bounded by rocky 

 ridges, hacked and torn at the top into teeth and edges, 

 and buttressed by snow fluted by the descending stones. 



135. We cross the basin to the central island, and 

 find grass and flowers at the place where we enter upon 

 it. This is the celebrated Jardin, of which you have 

 often heard. The upper part of the Jardin is bare rock. 

 Close at hand is one of the noblest peaks in this portion 

 of the Alps, the Aiguille Verte. It is between thirteen 

 and fourteen thousand feet high, and down its sides, 

 after freshly •fallen snow, avalanches incessantly thunder. 

 From one of its projections a streak of moraine starts 

 down the Talefre ; from the Jardin also a similar streak 



