although
goodly trees, looked like mere shrubs in their vast setting. Rills were
seen running like snowy veins among the slopes, and losing themselves in
the masses of _debris_ at the mountain-foot. As they gazed, the curtain
rose higher, disclosing new and more rugged features, on which shone a
strange, unearthly light--the result of shadow from the mist and
sunshine behind it--while a gleam of stronger light tipped the curtain's
under-edge in one direction. Still higher it rose! Susan exclaimed
that the mountain was rising into heaven; and Emma and Mrs Stoutley,
whose reading had evidently failed to impress them with a just
conception of mountain-scenery, stood with clasped hands in silent
expectancy and admiration. The gleam of stronger light above referred
to, widened, and Susan almost shrieked with ecstasy when the curtain
seemed to rend, and the gleam resolved itself into the great Glacier des
Bossons, which, rolling over the mountain-brow like a very world of ice,
thrust its mighty tongue down into the valley.

From that moment Susan's disbelief in her lady's knowledge changed into
faith, and deepened into profound veneration.

It was, however, only a slight glimpse that had been thus afforded of
the ice-world by which they were surrounded. The great ice-fountain of
those regions, commencing at the summit of Mont Blanc, flings its ample
waves over mountain and vale in all directions, forming a throne on
which perpetual winter reigns, and this glacier des Bossons, which
filled the breasts of our travellers with such feelings of awe, was but
one of the numerous rivers which flow from the fountain down the gorges
and higher valleys of the Alps, until they reach those regions where
summer heat asserts itself, and checks their further progress in the
form of ice by melting them.

"Is it possible," said Emma, as she gazed at the rugged and riven mass
of solid ice before her, "that a glacier really _flows_?"

"So learned men tell us, and so we must believe," said Mrs Stoutley.

"Flows, ma'am?" exclaimed Susan, in surprise.

"Yes, so it is said," replied Mrs Stoutley, with a smile.

"But we can see, ma'am, by lookin' at it, that it _don't_ flow; can't
we, ma'am?" said Susan.

"True, Susan, it does not seem to move; nevertheless scientific men tell
us that it does, and sometimes we are bound to believe against the
evidence of our senses."

Susan looked steadily at the glacier for some time; and then, altho