s really are so much bigger than
they look. Why, I say, Mr Dale, the glacier seems quite high up from
here, and ever so much farther off."

"And it will look bigger still when we reach the cave where the river
comes out."

"So!" said Melchior quietly; and he went on, now down the stony slope of
the valley, to reach the river bed near its source, with the sides of
the thal seeming to grow steeper and higher, and one of the waterfalls
they were near infinitely more beautiful, for they had now reached the
point necessary for seeing the lovely iris which spanned the cascade,
turning its seething spray into a segment of an arch of the most vivid
colours, at which the lad seemed disposed to gaze for an indefinite
time.

"Vorwarts," said the guide quietly; and they obeyed, following his lead
till they reached the spot where the clear waters of the fall glided
into the dingy stream, and then followed the latter up and up for quite
half an hour before Saxe stopped short, and took off his straw hat to
wipe his steaming forehead, as he gazed up at the end of the glacier; he
was now so low down that the surface was invisible, and facing him there
was a curve rising up and up, looking like a blunted set of natural
steps.

"Well?" said Dale, inquiringly.

"I can't make it out," said Saxe, rather breathlessly. "It seems as if
that thing were playing games with us, and growing bigger and shrinking
away farther at every step one takes."

"Yes," said Dale, "it is giving you a lesson that you will not easily
forget."

"But it looked quite small when we were up there," cried Saxe, nodding
toward the tower-like bluff they had climbed, again at the top of the
glacier.

"Yes, and now it looks quite big, Saxe; and when you have been on it and
have walked a few miles upon its surface here and there--"

"Miles?"

"Yes, my boy, miles. Then you will begin to grasp how big all this is,
and what vast deserts of ice and snow there are about us in the
mountains. But come along; we have not much farther to go to reach the
foot."

But it took them quite a quarter of an hour over rounded, scratched and
polished masses of rock which were in places cut into grooves, and to
all this Dale drew attention.

"Do you see what it means?" he said.

"No," said Saxe, "only that it's very bad walking, now it's so steep."

"But don't you see that--?"

"Yes, I do," cried Saxe, interrupting him; "you mean that this has been
all rubbed smooth by