1857 .]

QUARTERS AT THE MONTANVERT.

41

dank fog choked the valley, and heavy rain plashed uponthe stones outside. On two or three occasions we werefavoured by a thunderstorm, every peal of which brokemto a hundred echos, while the seams of lightning whichran through the heavens produced a wonderful intermittence°f gloom and glare. And as I sat within, musing on theexperiences of the day, with my pine logs crackling, andtke ruddy fire-light gleaming over the walls, and lendinganimation to the visages sketched upon them with charcoalby the guides, I felt that my position was in every wayWorthy of a student of nature.