h his
pole. Some of these fissures are of an amazing depth, and, taking out
my watch, I tried to fathom one of them by dropping large fragments of
granite; and calculating by the time that elapsed before reaching the
bottom, we judged it to be over five hundred feet.

Franz had hurried us; now, he stopped, and bade us look above us. We
did so, and were amply repaid for all our toil. To try to describe it
would be in vain; and still the distinct outline is indelibly
impressed upon my mind, and I am confident will never be effaced. We
were standing in the midst of the rough waves and yawning abysses of
this frozen sea; while almost perpendicularly from its brink the
mountains rose, clothed with scanty herbage, and adorned with the tiny
crimson blossoms of the rhododendron that bloomed upon their sides.

As the eye looked up the valley, every trace of vegetation died away;
and the snowy mountains appeared to meet and mingle with each other.

We left the glacier, and ascending again to the hospice of Montanvert,
I sat down by the side of Franz upon a block of granite, and looked
again upon a scene the equal of which I never expect to see again.
There was a far away look in Franz's eyes. Was he thinking of the
little cottage far up the mountain, and of Annette watching by the
bedside of his sick father? Perhaps so; in any case I was glad that we
had taken him. His could not be an everyday story, there must be some
particular motive why he should want so earnestly to come. I would not
question him then; but I determined to stop at the little cottage and
learn for myself.

With all the untold glory above and beneath me, I felt oppressed with
the littleness, as well as the greatness of my nature. How
insignificant I appeared amid these gigantic forms; and still I
exulted in the consciousness that "My Father made them all, that
Father with whom I could commune, and whose Son I was privileged to
love."

"And this God is our God," I was constrained to say aloud. Franz
turned his speaking eye upon me.

"If it was not for this, how could we endure it?" he said, while there
was a grave, calm look on his face, so little to be expected in a
guide.

"How could we endure this grandeur, or our own littleness?" I asked.

"To know that God rules, giving each his place, to the mountains
theirs, and to us ours. Insignificant we may be, and still we are each
of us of more value than all the mountains in the universe. Jesus
created m