ng as these in storm, or so woful
in sunshine. Where, however, these same rocks exist in more favourable
positions--that is to say, in gentler banks and at lower
elevations--they form a ground for the most luxuriant vegetation; and
the valleys of Savoy owe to them some of their loveliest
solitudes--exquisitely rich pastures, interspersed with arable and
orchard land, and shaded by groves of walnut and cherry. Scenes of
this kind, and of that just described, so singularly opposed, and
apparently brought together as foils to each other, are however
peculiar to certain beds of the slaty coherents, which are both vast
in elevation, and easy of destruction. In Wales and Scotland the same
groups of rocks possess far greater hardness, while they attain less
elevation; and the result is a totally different aspect of scenery.
The severity of the climate, and the comparative durableness of the
rock, forbid the rich vegetation; but the exposed summits, though
barren, are not subject to laws of destruction so rapid and fearful as
in Switzerland, and the natural colour of the rock is oftener
developed in the purples and greys which, mingled with the heather,
form the principal elements of the deep and beautiful distant blue of
the British hills. Their gentler mountain streams also permit the beds
of rock to remain in firm, though fantastic, forms along their banks,
and the gradual action of the cascades and eddies upon the slaty
cleavage produces many pieces of foreground scenery to which higher
hills can present no parallel.

37. Unlike Chamouni Aiguilles, there is no aspect of destruction about
the Matterhorn cliffs. They are not torn remnants of separating
spires, yielding, flake by flake, and band by band, to the continual
process of decay. They are, on the contrary, an unaltered monument,
seemingly sculptured long ago, the huge walls retaining yet the forms
into which they were first engraven, and standing like an Egyptian
temple;--delicately fronted, softly coloured, the suns of uncounted
ages rising and falling upon it continually, but still casting the
same line of shadows from east to west; still, century after century,
touching the same purple stains on the lotus pillars; while the desert
sand ebbs and flows about their feet, as those autumn leaves of rock
lie heaped and weak about the base of the Cervin.

Is not this a strange type in the very heart and height of these
mysterious Alps--these wrinkled hills in their sn