plan at the next slope. The Captain tried
it, but, as he expressed it, broke in two at the waist and rolled down
the slope, to the unspeakable delight of his friends.

"I fear you will find this rather severe?" said the Professor to Emma,
during a pause in a steep ascent.

"Oh no; I am remarkably strong," replied Emma, smiling. "I was in
Switzerland two years ago, and am quite accustomed to mountaineering."

"Yes," remarked Lawrence, "and Miss Gray on that occasion, I am told,
ascended to the top of the Dent du Midi, which you know is between ten
and eleven thousand feet high; and she also, during the same season,
walked from Champery to Sixt which is a good day's journey, so we need
have no anxiety on her account."

Although the Doctor smiled as he spoke, he also glanced at Emma with a
look of admiration. Captain Wopper noted the glance and was comforted.
At luncheon, however, the Doctor seated himself so that the Professor's
bulky person came between him and Emma. The Captain noted that also,
and was depressed. What between elation and depression, mingled with
fatigue and victuals, the Captain ultimately became recklessly jovial.

"What are yonder curious things?" asked Emma, pointing to so me gigantic
objects which looked at a distance like rude pillars carved by man.

"These," said the Professor, "are Nature's handiwork. You will observe
that on each pillar rests a rugged capital. The capital is the cause of
the pillar. It is a hard rock which originally rested on a softer bed
of friable stone. The weather has worn away the soft bed, except where
it has been protected by the hard stone, and thus a natural pillar has
arisen--just like the ice-pillars, which are protected from the sun in
the same way; only the latter are more evanescent."

Further on, the Professor drew the attention of his friends to the
beautiful blue colour of the holes which their alpenstocks made in the
snow. "Once," said he, "while walking on the heights of Monte Rosa, I
observed this effect with great interest, and, while engaged in the
investigation of the cause, got a surprise which was not altogether
agreeable. Some of the paths there are on very narrow ridges, and the
snow on these ridges often overhangs them. I chanced to be walking in
advance of my guide at the time to which I refer, and amused myself as I
went along by driving my alpenstock deep into the snow, when suddenly,
to my amazement I sent the end of the staff r