tly see that during the day we had
merely been in a cloud, above which having now ascended, the upper
surface lay beneath us like a country covered with snow. It was
evident, on looking round, that no rain had fallen on the pumice
gravel over which we were travelling. The mules were much fatigued,
and we got off to walk. In a few minutes our stockings and shoes
were completely dried, and in less than half an hour all our clothes
were thoroughly dried. The air was sharp and clear, like that of a
cold frosty morning in England; and though the extreme dryness, and
the consequent rapid evaporation, caused considerable cold, we were
enabled by quick exercise to keep ourselves comfortable. I had
various instruments with me, but no regular hygrometer: accident,
however, furnished me with one sufficiently indicative of the dry
state of the air. My gloves, which I kept on while mounted, were
completely soaked with the rain; and I took them off during this
walk, and, without considering what was likely to happen, rolled them
up, and carried them in my hand. When, at the end of an hour, or
somewhat less, we came to remount our mules, I found the gloves as
thoroughly dried and shrivelled up as if they had been placed in an
oven. During all the time we were at the Peak itself, on the 26th,
the sky was clear, the air quite dry, and we could distinguish,
several thousand feet below us, the upper and level surface of the
stratum of clouds through which we had passed the day before, and
into which we again entered on going down, and found precisely in the
same state as when we started."

It is not uncommon to observe an effect quite contrary to the one given
in the last two examples, the high summits of mountains being frequently
concealed by heavy clouds of mist, while at a very short distance below
them the air is clear and pure. In ascending to the Port of Venasque,
one of the mountain passes of the Pyrenees, Mr. Murray found the mists so
dense that he despaired of getting above them, or of their clearing away.
But fortunately the wind freshened, and the mist, broken by it, "came
sweeping," he says, "over our heads, sometimes enveloping us in darkness,
sometimes exposing the blue sky, and a part of the mountains. Section
after section of the bald and towering masses which rose above the path
were displayed to us, one after another