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 pack-horses, one of these tremendous masses is detached, carries away all before it, buries houses and villages, dashes rocks in pieces, overthrows the strongest walls, and squeezes up woods of the most ancient larch-trees, like a handful of toothpicks. Do you hear it still rumbling at a distance?” I listened, and faint echoes were yet distinctly audible.

The sun meanwhile sunk lower behind the western mountains; the sky was without a cloud, and now commenced what is properly called the glow of the Alps. The whole firmament resembled an ocean of fire. Its radiance was magnificently reflected by the glistening ice-capped peaks of the Jungfrau, and the sea-green pyramids and obelisks of the neighbouring glaciers. In the glowing ether the vast masses of snow appeared nearly transparent; it seemed as though the everlasting ice had imbibed the fire of the contiguous sky, as if heaven and earth were blended together in those unattainable elevations.

Mimili contemplated this enchanting scene with silent awe, and folding her hands over her breast, she prayed to its Almighty Author. “This is a heavenly evening!” she ejaculated, while the warm glow of the sky and the white summit of the Jungfrau were reflected in her dark-blue eyes, and her bosom heaved beneath the velvet corset.