n upon them in streaks and patches; where certain faults in
the rock occurred, and bars of iron-yielding stone were seen, the rust
had washed down also, so that upon flat facets and concave and convex
surfaces a great variety of colour and tint, and light and shade, was
produced.

He could not proceed immediately at the base of the cliffs, for in their
shelter the snow had drifted deep. He was soon obliged to keep to the
beaten track, which here ran about a quarter of a mile distant from the
rock. Walking his horse, and looking up as he went, his attention was
arrested by perceiving that a whitish stain on a smooth dark facet of
the rock assumed the appearance of a white angel in the act of alighting
from aerial flight. The picture grew so distinct that he could not take
his eyes from it, even after he had gone past, until he was quite weary
of looking back or of trying to keep his restive horse from dancing
forward. When, at last, however, he turned his eyes from the majestic
figure with the white wings, his fancy caught at certain lines and
patches of rust which portrayed a horse of gigantic size galloping upon
a forward part of the cliff. The second picture brought him to a
standstill, and he examined the whole face of the hill, realizing that
he was in the presence of a picture-gallery which Nature, it seemed, had
painted all for her own delight. He thought himself the discoverer; he
felt at once both a loneliness and elation at finding himself in that
frozen solitude, gazing with fascinated eyes at one portion of the rock
after another where he saw, or fancied he saw, sketches of this and that
which ravished his sense of beauty both in colour and form.

In his excitement to see what would come next, he did not check the
stepping of his horse, but only kept it to a gentle pace. Thus he came
where the road turned round with the rounding cliff, and here for a bit
he saw no picture upon the rock; but still he looked intently, hoping
that the panorama was not ended, and only just noticed that there was
another horse beside his own within the lonely scene. In some places
here the snow was drifted high near the track; in others, both the road
and the adjoining tracts of ice were swept by the wind almost bare of
snow. He soon became aware that the horse he had espied was not upon the
road. Then, aroused to curiosity, he turned out of his path and rode
through shallow snow till he came close to it.

The horse was standing