ul, and for the first few minutes
it seemed as if the water had just awakened at its various sources, and
was in no hurry to join the mad, impetuous stream below, so slowly it
dropped, turning into spray, which grew more and more misty as it
descended, while every now and then a jet as of silver rockets shot over
from the top, head and tail being exactly defined, but of course in
water instead of sparks.

"Will this do, Saxe?" said Dale, smiling.

"Do! Oh, come on. I want to get close up to those falls."

"Aren't you tired?"

"Tired!" cried Saxe. "What fellow could feel tired in a place like
this!"

CHAPTER THREE.

FURTHER IDEAS OF MAGNITUDE.

The guide had already started off, and for the next half-hour he led
them on and upward, gradually ascending a rocky eminence which stood
like a vast tower in the middle of the amphitheatre.

Every now and then he stopped to hold out his ice-axe handle to help
Saxe; but the latter disdained all aid, and contented himself with
planting his feet in the same spots as the guide, till all at once the
man stopped.

It was the top of the eminence; and as Saxe reached Melchior's side he
paused there, breathless with exertion and wonder, gazing now along the
curved part of the comma, which had been hidden for the last hour.

Right and left were the silvery veil-like cascades: down below them some
five hundred feet the little river roared and boomed, and the junction
of the silvery water of the falls with the grey milky, churned-up foam
of the torrent was plainly seen in two cases. But the sight which
enchained Saxe's attention was the head of the valley up which they had
toiled, filled by what at the first glance seemed to be a huge cascade
descending and flowing along the ravine before him, but which soon
resolved itself into the first glacier--a wonderfully beautiful frozen
river, rugged, wild and vast, but singularly free from the fallen stones
and earth which usually rob these wonders of their beauty, and looking
now in the bright sunshine dazzling in its purity of white, shaded by
rift, crack and hollow, where the compressed snow was of the most
delicate sapphire tint.

"Is that a glacier?" said Saxe, after gazing at it for a few minutes.

"Yes, lad, that's a glacier, and a better example than one generally
sees, because it is so particularly clean. Glaciers are generally
pretty old and dirty-looking in the lower parts."

The guide rested upon his ice-axe, wi