246 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEEGEN. 
defeated whatever chance of sport we might otherwise 
have had; for their hearty acclamations, engendered 
by the glorious weather we were exulting in, rose to 
fever heat as they set out, and manifested itself in 
good-humoured laughter and jolly exclamations as 
they advanced, so that the deer would have been dull 
indeed had they remained anywhere in our immediate 
neighbourhood. So we wandered along in happy dis¬ 
regard of order and moderation, and as we passed 
under the great masses of rock, which seemed barely 
suspended from the grand cliffs to which they clung,, 
we could not help looking up with a kind of dread 
lest they might in some way become detached from 
their resting-places, and come tumbling down upon 
us; nor were our fears without reason. The sun 
had melted away the snow and ice which during 
the winter had clung to them, and the thawing water- 
had carried away with it much of the earth and detri¬ 
tus, which to some extent had cemented these masses to 
the surface on which they clung. By degrees we were 
enabled to leave the dangerous propinquity of these 
cliffs, and we gradually made our way out on to the 
charming valley. The little plateaux were beautifully 
green, with scanty herbage, eked out with rank moss,, 
whose surface was spangled over with many flowering 
plants, whose gay bloom gave a peculiar charm to the 
