at the foot of the
precipitous gorge down which it ran--and thus forming a comparatively
easy path for the travellers, who climbed upwards over the rounded
masses, stopping from time to time where the ice curved over, leaving
spaces between it and its rocky bed, down which Saxe gazed into a deep
blue dimness, and listened to the murmuring roar of many waters coursing
along beneath.

Suddenly Dale uttered an ejaculation, and, taking a hammer from his
belt, began to climb up the rocky side of the valley.

Melchior saw the place for which he was making, and uttered a grunt
indicative of satisfaction.

The spot beneath which Dale stopped was only a dark-looking crack; but
as Saxe went nearer he could see that it was edged with dark-coloured
crystals set closely together, and resembling in size and shape the
teeth of a small saw.

Dale began to probe the crack directly with the handle of his ice-axe,
to find that the crevice gradually widened; and on applying his mouth
there and shouting, he could feel that it was a great opening.

"There ought to be big crystals in there, Melchior," cried Dale
excitedly.

"Yes, herr; but without you brought powder and blasting tools you could
not get at them, and if you did blast you would break them up."

Dale said nothing, but laying down his ice-axe he took hammer and chisel
and began to chip energetically at the hard rock, while the others
looked on till he ceased hammering, with a gesture full of impatience.

"You are right, Melchior," he said; "I shall never widen it like this."

"Why try, herr? I can show you holes already large enough for us to get
in."

"You know for certain of such places?"

"I cannot tell you exactly where they are now, but I have seen them in
the mountains!"

"In the mountains?"

"Well, then, right in these mountains, I feel sure. Let us go on and
try. If we do not find a better place we know where this is, and can
try it another time."

"Go on, then," said Dale, rather reluctantly; and they continued
climbing, with the rock towering up on one side, the ice curving over on
the other, and rising in the middle of the glacier to a series of crags
and waves and smooth patches full of cracks, in which lay blocks of
granite or limestone that had been tumbled down from the sides or far up
toward the head of the valley ages before.

They had not progressed far before the guide pointed out another crack
in the rock fringed with gem-like crystals, a