Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/65

Rh the clouds might, nevertheless, overtake us; and here, perhaps in the territory of the Valais, shut in on both sides by mountains, we might be covered with the clouds, and in one night snowed up. Thus whispered alarm, which got possession almost entirely of one ear: at the other, good courage was speaking in a confident tone, and, reproving me for want of faith, kept reminding me of the past, and called my attention to the phenomena of the atmosphere before us. Our road went continually on toward the fine weather. Up the Rhone all was clear; and, although a strong west wind kept driving the clouds behind us, they could not reach us.

The following was the cause of this. Into the valley of Valais there are, as I have so often remarked already, running down from the neighbouring mountain chains, many ravines, which fall into it like little brooks into a great stream, as, indeed, all their waters flow off into the hone. Out of each of these openings R rushes a current of wind, which has been forming in the inner valleys and nooks of the rocks. Whenever the principal drift of the clouds up the valley reaches one of these ravines, the current of the wind does not allow the clouds to pass, but contends with them and with the wind that is driving them, and thus detains them, and disputes with them for whole hours the passage up the valley. This conflict we often witnessed; and, when we believed we should surely be overtaken by the clouds, an obstacle of this kind would again arise: and, after we had gone a league, we found they had scarcely stirred from the spot.

Toward evening the sky was. uncommonly beautiful. As we arrived at Brieg, the clouds got there almost as soon as we: however, as the sun had set, and a driving east wind blew against them, they were obliged to come to a halt, and formed a huge crescent, from mountain to mountain, across the valley. The cold air had