, as if the whole had been a sight
too great for us to look upon. Sometimes the clouds opened, and the
snows, sparkling in the sun-beams, were before us; at others, an enormous
peak of the mountain would shoot its dark head through the mist, and,
without visible support, seem as if it were about to fall upon us.
Again, when we imagined ourselves hemmed in on all sides by the
mountains, and within a few feet of their rugged sides, a passing breeze
would disclose the dark waters of the lakes hundreds of feet beneath us.

"Thus the effect of light and darkness, of sunshine and of mist, working
upon materials of such grandeur as those near the Port of Venasque, was a
sight well worthy of admiration, and one which is rarely to be seen. * *
* * Excepting the intervals of light which the gusts of wind, by
dispersing the mists, had bestowed upon us, we had hitherto,
comparatively speaking, been shrouded in darkness, particularly for the
ten minutes preceding our arrival at the Port: my astonishment may
therefore be imagined when, the instant that I stepped beyond the limits
of the Port, I stood in the purest atmosphere--not a particle of mist,
not even a cloud, was perceptible. The phenomenon was curious, and its
interest greatly heightened from the situation in which it took place.
The mist rolling up the valley through which we had passed, was, the
moment that it could be said to reach the Spanish frontier,--the moment
it encircled the edges of the high ridges which separated the countries,
thrown back, as it were, indignantly, by a counter current from the
Spanish side. The conflicting currents of air, seemingly of equal
strength, and unable to overcome each other, carried the mist
perpendicularly from the summits of the ridge, and filling up the
crevices and fissures in its uneven surface, formed a wall many thousand
feet above it, of dark and (from the appearance of solidity which its
massive and perpendicular character bestowed upon it) apparently
impenetrable matter."

Undoubtedly the various phenomena of clouds may be seen to great
advantage in mountain regions; and there is only one other method of
seeing them to greater perfection, and that is from the car of a balloon.
The following description of an aerial voyage, by Mr. M. Mason, in
October 1836, will convey a better idea of the magnificence of a cloudy
sky than any terrestrial prospect could do. He says,--

"Scarcely had we quitted the earth before the c