"Rest tranquil where you are," said the guide, laying his hand on the
artist's arm; "the couloir takes a bend, you see, near the bottom.
There is no danger."

Thus assured, the whole of the party stood still and gazed upward.

Owing to the great height from which the descending mass was pouring,
the inexperienced were deceived as to the dimensions of the avalanche.
It seemed at first as if the boulders were too small to account for the
sounds created, but in a few seconds their real proportions became more
apparent, especially when the whole rush came straight towards the spot
on which the travellers stood with such an aspect of being fraught with
inevitable destruction, that all of them except the guide shrank
involuntarily backwards. At this crisis the chaotic mass was driven
with terrible violence against the cliffs to the left of the couloir,
and bounding, we might almost say fiercely, to the right, rushed out
upon the frozen plain about two hundred yards in advance of the spot on
which they stood.

"Is there not danger in being so close to such places?" asked Lewis,
glancing uneasily at Nita, whose flashing eyes and heightened colour
told eloquently of the excitement which the sight had aroused in her
breast.

"Not much," answered the Professor, "no doubt we cannot be said to be in
a place of absolute safety, nevertheless the danger is not great,
because we can generally observe the avalanches in time to get out of
the way of spent shots; and, besides, if we run under the lea of such
boulders as _that_, we are quite safe, unless it were to be hit by one
pretty nearly as large as itself." He pointed as he spoke to a mass of
granite about the size of an omnibus, which lay just in front of them.
"But I see," he added, laughing, "that Antoine thinks this is not a
suitable place for the delivery of lectures; we must hasten forward."

Soon they surmounted the steeps of the Glacier du Talefre, and reached
the object of their desire, the Jardin.

It is well named. A wonderful spot of earth and rock which rises out of
the midst of a great basin of half-formed ice, the lower part being
covered with green sward and spangled with flowers, while the summit of
the rock forms a splendid out-look from which to view the surrounding
scene.

Here, seated on the soft grass--the green of which was absolutely
delicious to the eyes after the long walk over the glaring ice--the
jovial Professor, with a sandwich in one hand and