resist the powers of the sun till winter came
again; another certain sign that they had reached a height greatly
exceeding that of the usual habitations of men. The keenness of the air
was another proof of their situation, for all the travellers had heard
that the Augustines dwelt among eternal frosts, a report which is nearly
literally true.

At no time during the day had the industry of the party been as great as
it now became. In this respect, the ordinary traveller is apt to resemble
him who journeys on the great highway of life, and who finds himself
obliged, by a tardy and ill-requited diligence in age, to repair those
omissions and negligences of youth which would have rendered the end of
his toil easy and profitable. Improved as their speed had become, it
continued to increase rather than to diminish, for Pierre Dumont kept his
eye riveted on the heavens, and each moment of time seemed to bring new
incentives to exertion. The wearied beasts manifested less zeal than the
guide, and they who rode them were beginning to murmur at the
unreasonableness of the rate at which they were compelled to proceed on
the narrow, uneven, stony path, where footing for the animals was not
always obtained with the necessary quickness, when a gloom deeper that
cast by the shadows of the rocks fell upon their track, and the air filled
with snow, as suddenly as if all its particles had been formed and
condensed by the application of some prompt chemical process.

The change was so unexpected, and yet so complete, that the whole party
checked their mules, and sat looking up at the millions of flakes that
were descending on their heads, with more wonder and admiration than fear.
A shout from Pierre first aroused them from this trance, and recalled them
to a sense of the real state of things. He was standing on a knoll,
already separated from the party by some fifty yards, white with snow, and
gesticulating violently for the travellers to come on.

"For the sake of the Blessed Maria! quicken the beasts," he cried; for
Pierre, like most who dwell in Valais, was a Catholic, and one accustomed
to bethink him most of his heavenly mediator when most oppressed with
present dangers; "quicken their speed, if ye value your lives! This is no
moment to gaze at the mountains, which are well enough in their way, and
no doubt both the finest and largest known," (no Swiss ever seriously
vituperates or loses his profound veneration for his beloved natu