Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/348



sky was cloudless, and the sun shone gaily and brightly on the morning of the 28th November 1886, the day I had fixed for crossing the Alps by the Brenner Pass on my way to Italy! I could scarcely believe my eyes when in the morning I saw from my hotel windows the snowy peaks dazzling in the sun on every side, like a vast wall of adamant and silver surrounding the gay town of Innsbruck. A little after ten I left the town to cross the Alps, and the scenery that I witnessed during the whole day was glorious.

The train slowly ascended along the valley of the Sill, working its way now through narrow gorges, and now through tunnels excavated through the solid rocks. The mountain river Sill foamed and clattered over a stony bed below, wooded valleys or solid walls of rock extended on both sides of us, while high overhead towered the peaks over seven thousand feet high, and covered with snow. As we ascended we came above the srtow line, which is not very high in this season; valleys and rocks on all sides were covered with one vast sheet of snow, and water dripping from the fissures of rocks were frozen into icicles and glistened in the sun. At last we reached the highest point of the Brenner Pass, 4,490 ft. above the level