420 PRĆTERITA-II

spectral Spina of the chapel has stayed in my own heart ever since.

Nor did things come right that year till we got to Chamouni, where, having seen enough by this time of the upper snow, I was content to enjoy my morning walks in the valley with papa and mamma; after which, I had more than enough to do among the lower rocks and woods till dinner time, and in watching phases of sunset afterwards from beneath the slopes of the Breven.

190. The last Chamouni entry, with its sequel, is perhaps worth keeping:-

“Aug. 23rd.-Rained nearly all day; but I walked to the source of the Arveron-now a mighty fall down the rocks of the Montanvert;* note the intense scarletty purple of the shattered larch stems, wet, opposed with yellow from decomposing turpentine; the alder stems looking much like birch, covered with the white branchy moss that looks like a coral. Went out again in the afternoon towards the Cascade des Pélerins;¹ surprised to see the real rain-clouds assume on the Breven, about one-third of its height, the form of cirri,-long, continuous, and delicate; the same tendency showing in the clouds all along the valley, some inclining to the fish-shape, and others to the cobweb-like wavy film.”

“LUCERNE, Aug. 31st.-The result of the above phenomena was a little lift of the clouds next morning, which gave me some of the finest passages about Mont Blanc I ever beheld; and then, weather continually worse till now. We have had two days’ ceaseless rain, this, the third, hardly interrupted, and the lake right into the town.”

* The rocks over which the Glacier des Bois descends, I meant.

¹ [For notices of this spot, see Modern Painters, vol. iv. (Vol. VI. pp. 342, 355).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]